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Male-biased genes are overrepresented among novel Drosophila pseudoobscura sex-biased genes.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:The origin of functional innovation is among the key questions in biology. Recently, it has been shown that new genes could arise from non-coding DNA and that such novel genes are often involved in male reproduction. RESULTS:With the aim of identifying novel genes, we used the technique "generation of longer cDNA fragments from serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) tags for gene identification (GLGI)" to extend 84 sex-biased 3'end SAGE tags that previously could not be mapped to the D. pseudoobscura transcriptome. Eleven male-biased and 33 female-biased GLGI fragments were obtained, of which 5 male-biased and 3 female-biased tags corresponded to putatively novel genes. This excess of novel genes with a male-biased gene expression pattern is consistent with previous results, which found novel genes to be primarily expressed in male reproductive tissues. 5' RACE analysis indicated that these novel transcripts are very short in length and could contain introns. Interspecies comparisons revealed that most novel transcripts show evidence for purifying selection. CONCLUSION:Overall, our data indicate that among sex-biased genes a considerable number of novel genes (approximately 2-4%) exist in D. pseudoobscura, which could not be predicted based on D. melanogaster gene models.

SUBMITTER: Metta M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2443716 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Male-biased genes are overrepresented among novel Drosophila pseudoobscura sex-biased genes.

Metta Muralidhar M Schlötterer Christian C

BMC evolutionary biology 20080624

<h4>Background</h4>The origin of functional innovation is among the key questions in biology. Recently, it has been shown that new genes could arise from non-coding DNA and that such novel genes are often involved in male reproduction.<h4>Results</h4>With the aim of identifying novel genes, we used the technique "generation of longer cDNA fragments from serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) tags for gene identification (GLGI)" to extend 84 sex-biased 3'end SAGE tags that previously could not ...[more]

PMID: 18577217

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Project description:BackgroundGenes with sex-biased expression often show rapid molecular evolution between species. Previous population genetic and comparative genomic studies of Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans revealed that male-biased genes have especially high rates of adaptive evolution. To test if this is also the case for other lineages within the melanogaster group, we investigated gene expression in D. ananassae, a species that occurs in structured populations in tropical and subtropical regions. We used custom-made microarrays and published microarray data to characterize the sex-biased expression of 129 D. ananassae genes whose D. melanogaster orthologs had been classified previously as male-biased, female-biased, or unbiased in their expression and had been studied extensively at the population-genetic level. For 43 of these genes we surveyed DNA sequence polymorphism in a natural population of D. ananassae and determined divergence to the sister species D. atripex and D. phaeopleura.ResultsSex-biased expression is generally conserved between D. melanogaster and D. ananassae, with the majority of genes exhibiting the same bias in the two species. However, about one-third of the genes have either gained or lost sex-biased expression in one of the species and a small proportion of genes (approximately 4%) have changed bias from one sex to the other. The male-biased genes of D. ananassae show evidence of positive selection acting at the protein level. However, the signal of adaptive protein evolution for male-biased genes is not as strong in D. ananassae as it is in D. melanogaster and is limited to genes with conserved male-biased expression in both species. Within D. ananassae, a significant signal of adaptive evolution is also detected for female-biased and unbiased genes.ConclusionsOur findings extend previous observations of widespread adaptive protein evolution to an independent Drosophila lineage, the D. ananassae subgroup. However, the rate of adaptive evolution is not greater for male-biased genes than for female-biased or unbiased genes, which suggests that there are differences in sex-biased gene evolution between the two lineages.

Dataset Information

Male-biased genes are overrepresented among novel Drosophila pseudoobscura sex-biased genes.

Publications

Male-biased genes are overrepresented among novel Drosophila pseudoobscura sex-biased genes.

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