Evolution of a recent neo-Y sex chromosome in a laboratory population of Drosophila

Abstract

In many species of animals, one of the sexes has a chromosome that is structurally and functionally different from its socalled homologue. Conventionally, it is called Y chromosome or W chromosome depending on whether it is present in males or females respectively. The corresponding homologous chromosomes are called X and Z chromosomes. The dimorphic sex chromosomes are believed to have originated from undifferentiated autosomes. In extant species it is difficult to envisage the changes that have occurred in the evolution of dimorphic sex chromosomes. In our laboratory, interracial hybridization between two Drosophila chromosomal races has resulted in the evolution of a novel race, which we have called Cytorace 1. Here we record that in the genome of Cytorace 1 one of the autosomes of its parents is inherited in a manner similar to that of a classical Y chromosome. Thus this unique Cytorace 1 has the youngest neo-Y sex chromosome (5000 days old; about 300 generations) and it can serve as a 'window' for following the transition of an autosome to a Y sex chromosome.