Unraveling the role of satellite DNAs in the evolution of the giant XY sex chromosomes of the flea beetle Omophoita octoguttata (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae)
Identificadores
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10481/102964Metadata
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Vidal, Jhon Alex Dziechciarz; Charlesworth, Deborah; Utsunomia, Ricardo; Garrido Ramos, Manuel Angel; dos Santos, Rodrigo Zeni; Porto-Foresti, Fábio; Artoni, Roberto Ferreira; Liehr, Thomas; de Almeida, Mara Cristina; Cioffi, Marcelo de BelloEditorial
BioMed Central Ltd
Materia
Repetitive DNA Satellitome Transposable elements
Date
2025-02-21Referencia bibliográfica
Vidal, J.A.D., Charlesworth, D., Utsunomia, R. et al. Unraveling the role of satellite DNAs in the evolution of the giant XY sex chromosomes of the flea beetle Omophoita octoguttata (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae). BMC Biol 23, 53 (2025). [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-025-02155-5]
Sponsorship
Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. This research was funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant 2023/06898–0 (J.A.D.V.) and 2023/00955–2 (M.B.C.), Fundação Araucária de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico do Paraná—NAPI-Bioinformatica (Agreement no. 033/2021), and Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), grant number 302928/2021–9 (M.B.C.). M.d.B.C. and T.L. were supported by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Research Group Linkage Programme). We acknowledge support by the German Research Foundation Projekt‑Nr. 512648189 (T.L.) and the Open Access Publication Fund of the Thueringer Universitaets‑ und Landesbibliothek Jena. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brasil (CAPES), Finance Code 001. All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.Abstract
Background: The flea beetle Omophoita octoguttata (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae) is a member of a group in which the males completely lack meiotic recombination (male-specific achiasmy) and that have extraordinarily large X and Y chromosomes. We combined genome sequencing, including microdissected Y and X chromosomes, and cytogenetic in situ hybridization studies, to evaluate the potential role of satellite DNAs (satDNAs) in the differentiation of those gigantic sex chromosomes.
Results: We report flow cytometry results showing that this species has a very large genome size (estimated to be 4.61 and 5.47 pg, or roughly 4.6 and 5.5 gigabases, for males and females, respectively), higher than the estimates from two other Alticinae species without giant sex chromosomes, suggesting that these sequences have greatly expanded on both the sex chromosomes, and that the Y has not greatly shrunk like the ones of other insects such as Drosophila with male achiasmy. About 68% of this large genome is made up of repetitive DNAs. Satellite DNAs (OocSatDNAs) form ~ 8–9% of their genomes, and we estimate how much of the sex chromosome expansions occurred due to differential amplification of different satellite classes. Analysis of divergence between sequences in the X and Y chromosomes suggests that, during the past roughly 20 mya, different OocSatDNAs amplified independently, leading to different representations. Some are specific to the Y or X chromosome, as expected when males are achiasmate, completely preventing genetic exchanges between the Y and X.