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Early stages of sex chromosome differentiation in fish as analysed by simple repetitive DNA sequences

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Abstract

Animal sex chromosome evolution has started on different occasions with a homologous pair of autosomes leading to morphologically differentiated gonosomes. In contrast to other vertebrate classes, among fishes cytologically demonstrable sex chromosomes are rare. In reptiles, certain motifs of simple tandemly repeated DNA sequences like (gata)n/(gaca)m are associated with the constitutive heterochromatin of sex chromosomes. In this study a panel of simple repetitive sequence probes was hybridized to restriction enzyme digested genomic DNA of poeciliid fishes. Apparent male heterogamety previously established by genetic experiments in Poecilia reticulata (guppy) was correlated with male-specific hybridization using the (GACA)4 probe. The (GATA)4 oligonucleotide identifies certain male guppies by a Y chromosomal polymorphism in the outbred population. In contrast none of the genetically defined heterogametic situations in Xiphophorus could be verified consistently using the collection of simple repetitive sequence probes. Only individuals from particular populations produced sex-specific patterns of hybridization with (GATA)4. Additional poeciliid species (P. sphenops, P. velifera) harbour different sex-specifically organized simple repeat motifs. The observed sex-specific hybridization patterns were substantiated by banding analyses of the karyotypes and by in situ hybridization using the (GACA)4 probe.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Humangenetik der Universtät, Am Hubland, W-8700, Würzburg, Federal Republic of Germany

    Indrajit Nanda, Wolfgang Feichtinger & Michael Schmid

  2. Gene Center, Am Klopferspitz 18a, W-8033, Martinsried, Federal Republic of Germany

    Manfred Schartl

  3. Max-Planck-Institut für Psychiatrie, Am Klopferspitz 18a, W-8033, Martinsried, Federal Republic of Germany

    Jörg T. Epplen

Authors
  1. Indrajit Nanda
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  2. Manfred Schartl
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  3. Wolfgang Feichtinger
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  4. Jörg T. Epplen
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  5. Michael Schmid
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Dedicated to Professor Karl Sperling on the occasion of his 50th birthday

by E.R. Schmidt

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Nanda, I., Schartl, M., Feichtinger, W. et al. Early stages of sex chromosome differentiation in fish as analysed by simple repetitive DNA sequences. Chromosoma 101, 301–310 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00346009

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00346009

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