ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2016
Birth of a W sex chromosome by horizontal transfer of Wolbachia bacterial symbiont genome.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers.
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65 citing papers in PubMed, 117 citations in OpenAlex.
- Heterogeneous associations between sex-ratio distorters and mitochondrial haplotypes in U.S. populations of Armadillidium vulgare.Genetica · 2026Article
- Horizontal gene transfer is widespread in diverse eukaryotes.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- From Adam's rib: the Siberian moth's female W chromosome is derived from its Z counterpart.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Within-Host Environmental Heterogeneity Is Associated With Phenotypic but Not Genomic Diversity in Wolbachia Endosymbionts.Environmental microbiology reports · 2026Article
- Identification of a sex-determining region potentially involved in resolving genetic conflicts over sex ratio.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Evolutionary Diversification and Functions of the Candidate Male Killing Gene wmk.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Genomic insights reveal community structure and phylogenetic associations of endohyphal bacteria and viruses in fungal endophytes.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
- Elucidating the Molecular Mechanisms of Sex Ratio Distortion Mediated by Cytoplasmic Symbionts.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Review
- Suppression of cytoplasmic incompatibility in the leaf-mining flyRoyal Society open science · 2025Article
- Diatom heterotrophy on brown algal polysaccharides emerged through horizontal gene transfer, gene duplication, and neofunctionalization.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- The ecology, evolution, and physiology of Cardinium: a widespread heritable endosymbiont of invertebrates.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- EEfinder, a general purpose tool for identification of bacterial and viral endogenized elements in eukaryotic genomes.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2024Article
- Temporal stability of sex ratio distorter prevalence in natural populations of the isopod Armadillidium vulgare.Heredity · 2024Article
- Evidence for feminized genetic males in a flea beetle using newly identified X-linked markers.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Pillbug: A Toolbox for Feminisation.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2024Article
- Three feminizingFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- The relationship between gender and pharmacology.Current research in pharmacology and drug discovery · 2024Article
- Advances in genome sequencing reveal changes in gene content that contribute to arthropod macroevolution.Development genes and evolution · 2023Review
- Unraveling the complex evolutionary history of lepidopteran chromosomes through ancestral chromosome reconstruction and novel chromosome nomenclature.BMC biology · 2023Article
- Genome-wide analysis of horizontal transfer in non-model wild species from a natural ecosystem reveals new insights into genetic exchange in plants.PLoS genetics · 2023Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sex determination is a fundamental developmental pathway governing male and female differentiation, with profound implications for morphology, reproductive strategies, and behavior. In animals, sex differences between males and females are generally determined by genetic factors carried by sex chromosomes. Sex chromosomes are remarkably variable in origin and can differ even between closely related species, indicating that transitions occur frequently and independently in different groups of organisms. The evolutionary causes underlying sex chromosome turnover are poorly understood, however. Here we provide evidence indicating that Wolbachia bacterial endosymbionts triggered the evolution of new sex chromosomes in the common pillbug Armadillidium vulgare We identified a 3-Mb insert of a feminizing Wolbachia genome that was recently transferred into the pillbug nuclear genome. The Wolbachia insert shows perfect linkage to the female sex, occurs in a male genetic background (i.e., lacking the ancestral W female sex chromosome), and is hemizygous. Our results support the conclusion that the Wolbachia insert is now acting as a female sex-determining region in pillbugs, and that the chromosome carrying the insert is a new W sex chromosome. Thus, bacteria-to-animal horizontal genome transfer represents a remarkable mechanism underpinning the birth of sex chromosomes. We conclude that sex ratio distorters, such as Wolbachia endosymbionts, can be powerful agents of evolutionary transitions in sex determination systems in animals.
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