Male-biased distribution of the human Y chromosomal genes SRY and ZFY in the lizard Calotes versicolor, which lacks sex chromosomes and temperature-dependent sex determination

Abstract

In the present investigation on the lizard Calotes versicolor, which lacks temperature-dependent sex determination, all the conventional cytological techniques used failed to resolve a distinguishable pair of sex chromosomes. However, probing of the genome with the human Y-linked genes SRY and ZFY showed sex-specific bias in their distribution. While the SRY probe hybridized to all the males, more than half of the females examined did not show any hybridization. ZFY hybridized to both the sexes, giving two bands; one was common to all the individuals of both sexes, but the other, of the lower molecular length, occurred in all the males but in less than 50% of females. This predominantly male-specific band is named AMF. The SRY-positive females were also positive for the AMF of ZFY. As positive as well as negative females were fertile and none of the males lacked SRY, it appears that SRY is essential for males only and that both the genes are syntenic in this species. This report raises interesting possibilities on the differentiation of the sex chromosomes in C. versicolor and evolution of SRY/ZFY on the Y chromosome of eutherian mammals through the ancestral group(s) that harbour sex-independent SRY- and ZFY-related genes.