A masculinizing supergene underlies an exaggerated male reproductive morph in a spider
- Author
- Frederik Hendrickx (UGent) , Zoë De Corte (UGent) , Gontran Sonet, Steven M. Van Belleghem, Stephan Köstlbacher and Carl Vangestel (UGent)
- Organization
- Project
- Abstract
- In many species, individuals can develop into strikingly different morphs, which are determined by a simple Mendelian locus. How selection shapes loci that control complex phenotypic differences remains poorly understood. In the spider Oedothorax gibbosus, males develop either into a ‘hunched’ morph with conspicuous head structures or as a fast-developing ‘flat’ morph with a female-like appearance. We show that the hunched-determining allele contains a unique genomic fragment of approximately 3 megabases that is absent in the flat-determining allele. This fragment comprises dozens of genes that duplicated from genes found at the same as well as different chromosomes. All functional duplicates, including a duplicate of the key sexual differentiation regulatory gene doublesex, show male-specific expression, which illustrates their integrated role as a masculinizing supergene. Our findings demonstrate how extensive indel polymorphisms and duplications of regulatory genes may contribute to the evolution of co-adapted gene clusters, sex-limited reproductive morphs and the enigmatic evolution of exaggerated sexual traits in general.
- Keywords
- Ecology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, DWARF SPIDERS, EVOLUTION, SEX, TOOL, CONSTRUCTION, LINYPHIIDAE, GENERATION, ERIGONINAE, DOUBLESEX, FRAMEWORK
Downloads
-
(...).pdf
- full text (Published version)
- |
- UGent only
- |
- |
- 11.88 MB
Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8753985
- MLA
- Hendrickx, Frederik, et al. “A Masculinizing Supergene Underlies an Exaggerated Male Reproductive Morph in a Spider.” NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION, vol. 6, 2022, pp. 195–206, doi:10.1038/s41559-021-01626-6.
- APA
- Hendrickx, F., De Corte, Z., Sonet, G., Van Belleghem, S. M., Köstlbacher, S., & Vangestel, C. (2022). A masculinizing supergene underlies an exaggerated male reproductive morph in a spider. NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION, 6, 195–206. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01626-6
- Chicago author-date
- Hendrickx, Frederik, Zoë De Corte, Gontran Sonet, Steven M. Van Belleghem, Stephan Köstlbacher, and Carl Vangestel. 2022. “A Masculinizing Supergene Underlies an Exaggerated Male Reproductive Morph in a Spider.” NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION 6: 195–206. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01626-6.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Hendrickx, Frederik, Zoë De Corte, Gontran Sonet, Steven M. Van Belleghem, Stephan Köstlbacher, and Carl Vangestel. 2022. “A Masculinizing Supergene Underlies an Exaggerated Male Reproductive Morph in a Spider.” NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION 6: 195–206. doi:10.1038/s41559-021-01626-6.
- Vancouver
- 1.Hendrickx F, De Corte Z, Sonet G, Van Belleghem SM, Köstlbacher S, Vangestel C. A masculinizing supergene underlies an exaggerated male reproductive morph in a spider. NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION. 2022;6:195–206.
- IEEE
- [1]F. Hendrickx, Z. De Corte, G. Sonet, S. M. Van Belleghem, S. Köstlbacher, and C. Vangestel, “A masculinizing supergene underlies an exaggerated male reproductive morph in a spider,” NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION, vol. 6, pp. 195–206, 2022.
@article{8753985,
abstract = {{In many species, individuals can develop into strikingly different morphs, which are determined by a simple Mendelian locus. How selection shapes loci that control complex phenotypic differences remains poorly understood. In the spider Oedothorax gibbosus, males develop either into a ‘hunched’ morph with conspicuous head structures or as a fast-developing ‘flat’ morph with a female-like appearance. We show that the hunched-determining allele contains a unique genomic fragment of approximately 3 megabases that is absent in the flat-determining allele. This fragment comprises dozens of genes that duplicated from genes found at the same as well as different chromosomes. All functional duplicates, including a duplicate of the key sexual differentiation regulatory gene doublesex, show male-specific expression, which illustrates their integrated role as a masculinizing supergene. Our findings demonstrate how extensive indel polymorphisms and duplications of regulatory genes may contribute to the evolution of co-adapted gene clusters, sex-limited reproductive morphs and the enigmatic evolution of exaggerated sexual traits in general.}},
author = {{Hendrickx, Frederik and De Corte, Zoë and Sonet, Gontran and Van Belleghem, Steven M. and Köstlbacher, Stephan and Vangestel, Carl}},
issn = {{2397-334X}},
journal = {{NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION}},
keywords = {{Ecology,Ecology,Evolution,Behavior and Systematics,DWARF SPIDERS,EVOLUTION,SEX,TOOL,CONSTRUCTION,LINYPHIIDAE,GENERATION,ERIGONINAE,DOUBLESEX,FRAMEWORK}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{195--206}},
title = {{A masculinizing supergene underlies an exaggerated male reproductive morph in a spider}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01626-6}},
volume = {{6}},
year = {{2022}},
}
- Altmetric
- View in Altmetric
- Web of Science
- Times cited: