Characterization of a Sex-Determining Region and Its Genomic Context via Statistical Estimates of Haplotype Frequencies in Daughters and Sons Sequenced in Pools

Sex chromosomes are generally derived from a pair of autosomes that have acquired a locus controlling sex. Sex chromosomes may evolve reduced recombination around this locus and undergo a long process of molecular divergence. At that point, the original loci controlling sex may be difficult to pinpoint. This difficulty has affected many model species from mammals to birds to flies, which present highly diverged sex chromosomes. Identifying sex -controlling loci is easier in species with molecularly similar sex chromosomes. Here we aimed at pinpointing the sex -determining region (SDR) of Armadillidium vulgare, a terrestrial isopod with female heterogamety (7W females and 77 males) and whose sex chromosomes appear to show low genetic divergence. To locate the SDR, we assessed single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) allele frequencies in F1 daughters and sons sequenced in pools (pool-seq) in several families. We developed a Bayesian method that uses the SNP genotypes of individually sequenced parents and pool-seq data from Fl siblings to estimate the genetic distance between a given genomic region (contig) and the SDR. This allowed us to assign more than 43 Mb of contigs to sex chromosomes, and to demonstrate extensive recombination and very low divergence between these chromosomes. By taking advantage of multiple F1 families, we delineated a very short genomic region (similar to 65 kb) that presented no evidence of recombination with the SDR. In this short genomic region, the comparison of sequencing depths between sexes highlighted female -specific genes that have undergone recent duplication, and which may be involved in sex determination in A. vulgare.

Automated summary

Sex chromosomes are derived from a pair of autosomes that have acquired a locus controlling sex, undergoing reduced recombination and molecular divergence over time. The difficulty in pinpointing sex-controlling loci arises in species with highly diverged sex chromosomes. However, identification of sex-determining regions becomes easier in species with lower genetic divergence on their sex chromosomes.