Birth of a new gene on the Y chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster
Abstract
Mammalian Y chromosomes are believed to evolve mainly through gene inactivation and loss. Drosophila Y chromosomes seem to not obey this rule, as gene gains are the dominating force in their evolution. Here we describe flagrante delicto Y (FDY), a very young gene that shows how Y-linked genes were acquired. FDY originated 2 million years ago from a duplication of a contiguous autosomal segment of 11 kb containing five genes that inserted into the Y chromosome. Four of these autosome-to-Y gene copies became inactivated ("pseudogenes"), lost part of their sequences, and most likely will disappear in the next few million years. FDY, originally a female-biased gene, acquired testis expression and remained functional.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- October 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1516543112
- Bibcode:
- 2015PNAS..11212450C