The effects of the sex chromosomes on the inheritance of species-specific traits of the copulatory organ shape in Drosophila virilis and Drosophila lummei

The shape of the male genitalia in many taxa is the most rapidly evolving morphological structure, often driving reproductive isolation, and is therefore widely used in systematics as a key character to distinguish between sibling species. However, only a few studies have used the genital arch of th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2020-12, Vol.15 (12), p.e0244339-e0244339
Main Authors: Kulikov, Alex M, Sorokina, Svetlana Yu, Melnikov, Anton I, Gornostaev, Nick G, Seleznev, Dmitriy G, Lazebny, Oleg E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal reproduction
Animals
Biology and Life Sciences
Chromosomes
Chromosomes, Insect - genetics
Crosses, Genetic
Developmental biology
Drosophila
Drosophila - anatomy & histology
Drosophila - classification
Drosophila - genetics
Drosophila virilis
Epistasis
Epistasis, Genetic
Female
Females
Fertility
Fruit flies
Genes
Genetic aspects
Genetic research
Genetics
Genitalia, Male - anatomy & histology
Genomes
Heredity
Infertility
Insects
Interspecific
Male
Males
Mating
Morphology
Organ Size
Physiological aspects
Quantitative Trait, Heritable
Reproductive isolation
Reproductive organs, Male
Sex
Sex chromosomes
Sex Chromosomes - genetics
Sexual selection
Sexual selection in animals
Sibling species
Species composition
Species Specificity
Systematics
X chromosomes
Y chromosomes
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Summary:The shape of the male genitalia in many taxa is the most rapidly evolving morphological structure, often driving reproductive isolation, and is therefore widely used in systematics as a key character to distinguish between sibling species. However, only a few studies have used the genital arch of the male copulatory organ as a model to study the genetic basis of species-specific differences in the Drosophila copulatory system. Moreover, almost nothing is known about the effects of the sex chromosomes on the shape of the male mating organ. In our study, we used a set of crosses between D. virilis and D. lummei and applied the methods of quantitative genetics to assess the variability of the shape of the male copulatory organ and the effects of the sex chromosomes and autosomes on its variance. Our results showed that the male genital shape depends on the species composition of the sex chromosomes and autosomes. Epistatic interactions of the sex chromosomes with autosomes and the species origin of the Y-chromosome in a male in interspecific crosses also influenced the expression of species-specific traits in the shape of the male copulatory system. Overall, the effects of sex chromosomes were comparable to the effects of autosomes despite the great differences in gene numbers between them. It may be reasonably considered that sexual selection for specific genes associated with the shape of the male mating organ prevents the demasculinization of the X chromosome.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0244339