Significant positive correlation between the recombination rate and GC content in the human pseudoautosomal region

Why does the X chromosome lag behind autosomes in GWAS findings?

The X-chromosome is among the largest human chromosomes. It differs from autosomes by a number of important features including hemizygosity in males, an almost complete inactivation of one copy in females, and unique patterns of recombination. We used data from the Catalog of Published Genome Wide Association Studies to compare densities of the GWAS-detected SNPs on the X-chromosome and autosomes. The density of GWAS-detected SNPs on the X-chromosome is 6-fold lower compared to the density of the GWAS-detected SNPs on autosomes. Differences between the X-chromosome and autosomes cannot be explained by differences in the overall SNP density, lower X-chromosome coverage by genotyping platforms or low call rate of X-chromosomal SNPs. Similar differences in the density of GWAS-detected SNPs were found in female-only GWASs (e.g. ovarian cancer GWASs). We hypothesized that the lower density of GWAS-detected SNPs on the X-chromosome compared to autosomes is not a result of a methodological bias, e.g. differences in coverage or call rates, but has a real underlying biological reason-a lower density of functional SNPs on the X-chromosome versus autosomes. This hypothesis is supported by the observation that (i) the overall SNP density of X-chromosome is lower compared to the SNP density on autosomes and that (ii) the density of genic SNPs on the X-chromosome is lower compared to autosomes while densities of intergenic SNPs are similar.

The genome loading model for the origin and maintenance of sex in eukaryotes

Understanding why sexual reproduction-which involves syngamy (union of gametes) and meiosis-emerged and how it has subsisted for millions of years remains a fundamental problem in biology. Considered as the essence of sex, meiotic recombination is initiated by a DNA double-strand break (DSB) that forms on one of the pairing homologous chromosomes. This DNA lesion is subsequently repaired by gene conversion, the non-reciprocal transfer of genetic information from the intact homolog. A major issue is which of the pairing homologs undergoes DSB formation. Accumulating evidence shows that chromosomal sites where the pairing homologs locally differ in size, i.e., are heterozygous for an insertion or deletion, often display disparity in gene conversion. Biased conversion tends to duplicate insertions and lose deletions. This suggests that DSB is preferentially formed on the "shorter" homologous region, which thereby acts as the recipient for DNA transfer. Thus, sex primarily functions as a genome (re)loading mechanism. It ensures the restoration of formerly lost DNA sequences (deletions) and allows the efficient copying and, mainly in eukaryotes, subsequent spreading of newly emerged sequences (insertions) arising initially in an individual genome, even if they confer no advantage to the host. In this way, sex simultaneously repairs deletions and increases genetic variability underlying adaptation. The model explains a remarkable increase in DNA content during the evolution of eukaryotic genomes.

The Eutherian Pseudoautosomal Region

The pseudoautosomal region (PAR) is a unique segment of sequence homology between differentiated sex chromosomes where recombination occurs during meiosis. Molecular and functional properties of the PAR are distinctive from the autosomes and the remaining regions of the sex chromosomes. These include a higher rate of recombination than genome average, bias towards GC-substitutions and increased interindividual nucleotide divergence and mutations. As yet, the PAR has been physically demarcated in only 28 eutherian species representing 6 mammalian orders. Murid rodents have the smallest, gene-poorest and most diverged PARs. Other eutherian PARs are largely homologous but differ in size and gene content, being the smallest in equids and human/simian primates and much larger in other eutherians. Because pseudoautosomal genes escape X inactivation, their dosage changes with sex chromosome aneuploidies, whereas phenotypic effects of the latter depend on the size and gene content of the PAR. Thus, X monosomy is more viable in mice, humans and horses than in species with larger PARs. Presently, little is known about the functions of PAR genes in individual species, though human studies suggest their involvement in early embryonic development. The PAR is, thus, of evolutionary, genetic and biomedical significance and a 'research hotspot' in eutherian genomes.

The Constrained Maximal Expression Level Owing to Haploidy Shapes Gene Content on the Mammalian X Chromosome

X chromosomes are unusual in many regards, not least of which is their nonrandom gene content. The causes of this bias are commonly discussed in the context of sexual antagonism and the avoidance of activity in the male germline. Here, we examine the notion that, at least in some taxa, functionally biased gene content may more profoundly be shaped by limits imposed on gene expression owing to haploid expression of the X chromosome. Notably, if the X, as in primates, is transcribed at rates comparable to the ancestral rate (per promoter) prior to the X chromosome formation, then the X is not a tolerable environment for genes with very high maximal net levels of expression, owing to transcriptional traffic jams. We test this hypothesis using The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) and data from the Functional Annotation of the Mammalian Genome (FANTOM5) project. As predicted, the maximal expression of human X-linked genes is much lower than that of genes on autosomes: on average, maximal expression is three times lower on the X chromosome than on autosomes. Similarly, autosome-to-X retroposition events are associated with lower maximal expression of retrogenes on the X than seen for X-to-autosome retrogenes on autosomes. Also as expected, X-linked genes have a lesser degree of increase in gene expression than autosomal ones (compared to the human/Chimpanzee common ancestor) if highly expressed, but not if lowly expressed. The traffic jam model also explains the known lower breadth of expression for genes on the X (and the Z of birds), as genes with broad expression are, on average, those with high maximal expression. As then further predicted, highly expressed tissue-specific genes are also rare on the X and broadly expressed genes on the X tend to be lowly expressed, both indicating that the trend is shaped by the maximal expression level not the breadth of expression per se. Importantly, a limit to the maximal expression level explains biased tissue of expression profiles of X-linked genes. Tissues whose tissue-specific genes are very highly expressed (e.g., secretory tissues, tissues abundant in structural proteins) are also tissues in which gene expression is relatively rare on the X chromosome. These trends cannot be fully accounted for in terms of alternative models of biased expression. In conclusion, the notion that it is hard for genes on the Therian X to be highly expressed, owing to transcriptional traffic jams, provides a simple yet robustly supported rationale of many peculiar features of X’s gene content, gene expression, and evolution.

Laurence Hurst, Lukasz Huminiecki, and the FANTOM5 consortium propose a new explanation for the peculiar expression properties of genes on the human X chromosome, based on the premise that very high expression levels cannot be achieved on a haploid-expressed chromosome.

Genes located on the human X chromosome are not a random mix of genes: they tend to be expressed in relatively few tissues or are specific for a particular set of tissues, e.g., brain regions. Prior attempts to explain this skewed gene content have hypothesized that the X chromosome might be peculiar because it has to balance mutations that are advantageous to one sex but deleterious to the other, or because it has to shut down during the process of sperm manufacture in males. Here we suggest and test a third possible explanation: that genes on the X chromosome are limited in their transcription levels and thus tend to be genes that are lowly or specifically expressed. We consider the suggestion that since these genes can only be expressed from one chromosome, as males only have one X, the ability to express a gene at very high rates is limited owing to potential transcriptional traffic jams. As predicted, we find that human X-located genes have maximal expression rates far below that of genes residing on autosomes. When we look at genes that have moved onto or off the X chromosome during recent evolution, we find the maximal expression is higher when not on the X chromosome. We also find that X-located genes that are relatively highly expressed are not able to increase their expression level further. Our model explains both the enrichment for tissue specificity and the paucity of certain tissues with X-located genes. Genes underrepresented on the X are either expressed in many tissues—such genes tend to have high maximal expression—or are from tissues that require a lot of transcription (e.g., fast secreting tissues like the liver). Just as many of the findings cannot be explained by the two earlier models, neither can the traffic jam model explain all the peculiar features of the genes found on the X chromosome. Indeed, we find evidence of a reproduction-related bias in X-located genes, even after allowing for the traffic jam problem.

A pronounced evolutionary shift of the pseudoautosomal region boundary in house mice

The pseudoautosomal region (PAR) is essential for the accurate pairing and segregation of the X and Y chromosomes during meiosis. Despite its functional significance, the PAR shows substantial evolutionary divergence in structure and sequence between mammalian species. An instructive example of PAR evolution is the house mouse Mus musculus domesticus (represented by the C57BL/6J strain), which has the smallest PAR among those that have been mapped. In C57BL/6J, the PAR boundary is located just ~700 kb from the distal end of the X chromosome, whereas the boundary is found at a more proximal position in Mus spretus, a species that diverged from house mice 2-4 million years ago. In this study we used a combination of genetic and physical mapping to document a pronounced shift in the PAR boundary in a second house mouse subspecies, Mus musculus castaneus (represented by the CAST/EiJ strain), ~430 kb proximal of the M. m. domesticus boundary. We demonstrate molecular evolutionary consequences of this shift, including a marked lineage-specific increase in sequence divergence within Mid1, a gene that resides entirely within the M. m. castaneus PAR but straddles the boundary in other subspecies. Our results extend observations of structural divergence in the PAR to closely related subspecies, pointing to major evolutionary changes in this functionally important genomic region over a short time period.

Comparative analysis of a plant pseudoautosomal region (PAR) in Silene latifolia with the corresponding S. vulgaris autosome

Background

The sex chromosomes of Silene latifolia are heteromorphic as in mammals, with females being homogametic (XX) and males heterogametic (XY). While recombination occurs along the entire X chromosome in females, recombination between the X and Y chromosomes in males is restricted to the pseudoautosomal region (PAR). In the few mammals so far studied, PARs are often characterized by elevated recombination and mutation rates and high GC content compared with the rest of the genome. However, PARs have not been studied in plants until now. In this paper we report the construction of a BAC library for S. latifolia and the first analysis of a > 100 kb fragment of a S. latifolia PAR that we compare to the homologous autosomal region in the closely related gynodioecious species S. vulgaris.

Results

Six new sex-linked genes were identified in the S. latifolia PAR, together with numerous transposable elements. The same genes were found on the S. vulgaris autosomal segment, with no enlargement of the predicted coding sequences in S. latifolia. Intergenic regions were on average 1.6 times longer in S. latifolia than in S. vulgaris, mainly as a consequence of the insertion of transposable elements. The GC content did not differ significantly between the PAR region in S. latifolia and the corresponding autosomal region in S. vulgaris.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate the usefulness of the BAC library developed here for the analysis of plant sex chromosomes and indicate that the PAR in the evolutionarily young S. latifolia sex chromosomes has diverged from the corresponding autosomal region in the gynodioecious S. vulgaris mainly with respect to the insertion of transposable elements. Gene order between the PAR and autosomal region investigated is conserved, and the PAR does not have the high GC content observed in evolutionarily much older mammalian sex chromosomes.

Genomic analyses of sex chromosome evolution

Sex chromosomes have evolved multiple times in many taxa. The recent explosion in the availability of whole genome sequences from a variety of organisms makes it possible to investigate sex chromosome evolution within and across genomes. Comparative genomic studies have shown that quite distant species may share fundamental properties of sex chromosome evolution, while very similar species can evolve unique sex chromosome systems. Furthermore, within-species genomic analyses can illuminate chromosome-wide sequence and expression polymorphisms. Here, we explore recent advances in the study of vertebrate sex chromosomes achieved using genomic analyses.

Recombination and nucleotide diversity in the sex chromosomal pseudoautosomal region of the emu, Dromaius novaehollandiae

Pseudoautosomal regions (PARs) shared by avian Z and W sex chromosomes are typically small homologous regions within which recombination still occurs and are hypothesized to share the properties of autosomes. We capitalized on the unusual structure of the sex chromosomes of emus, Dromaius novaehollandiae, which consist almost entirely of PAR shared by both sex chromosomes, to test this hypothesis. We compared recombination, linkage disequilibrium (LD), GC content, and nucleotide diversity between pseudoautosomal and autosomal loci derived from 11 emu bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones that were mapped to chromosomes by fluorescent in situ hybridization. Nucleotide diversity (pi = 4N(e)mu) was not significantly lower in pseudoautosomal loci (14 loci, 1.9 +/- 2.4 x 10(-3)) than autosomal loci (8 loci, 4.2 +/- 6.1 x 10(-3)). By contrast, recombination per site within BAC-end sequences (rho = 4Nc) (pseudoautosomal, 3.9 +/- 6.9 x 10(-2); autosomal, 2.3 +/- 3.7 x 10(-2)) was higher and average LD (D') (pseudoautosomal, 4.2 +/- 0.2 x 10(-1); autosomal, 4.7 +/- 0.5 x 10(-1)) slightly lower in pseudoautosomal sequences. We also report evidence of deviation from a simple neutral model in the PAR and in autosomal loci, possibly caused by departures from demographic equilibrium, such as population growth. This study provides a snapshot of the population genetics of avian sex chromosomes at an early stage of differentiation.

Rapid evolution of female-biased, but not male-biased, genes expressed in the avian brain

The powerful pressures of sexual and natural selection associated with species recognition and reproduction are thought to manifest in a faster rate of evolution in sex-biased genes, an effect that has been documented particularly for male-biased genes expressed in the reproductive tract. However, little is known about the rate of evolution for genes involved in sexually dimorphic behaviors, which often form the neurological basis of intrasexual competition and mate choice. We used microarray data, designed to uncover sex-biased expression patterns in embryonic chicken brain, in conjunction with data on the rate of sequence evolution for >4,000 coding regions aligned between chicken and zebra finch in order to study the role of selection in governing the molecular evolution for sex-biased and unbiased genes. Surprisingly, we found that female-biased genes, defined across a range of cutoff values, show a higher rate of functional evolution than both male-biased and unbiased genes. Autosomal male-biased genes evolve at a similar rate as unbiased genes. Sex-specific genomic properties, such as heterogeneity in genomic distribution and GC content, and codon usage bias for sex-biased classes fail to explain this surprising result, suggesting that selective pressures may be acting differently on the male and female brain.