ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2021
The timing of genetic degeneration of sex chromosomes.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Widespread male-female expression imbalance of X-linked genes across phrynosomatid lizards.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Ancient but dynamic: structural expansion, massive gene duplication, and transposable element colonization in a supergene controlling ant social organization.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- A haplotype-resolved nutmeg genome reveals XY sex chromosome evolution and enables molecular sexing.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Chromosome-specific drift under stabilizing selection generates polygenic barriers to sex chromosome turnover.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Sex chromosome identification and genome curation from a single individual with SCINKD.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Neo-sex Chromosomes Track the Mitochondrial Phylogeny and Exhibit an Extensive Added Stratum of Recombination Suppression in Honeyeaters (Aves: Meliphagidae).Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Multiple Origins of Sex Chromosomes in Nothobranchius Killifishes.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- An Extension of Muller's Sheltering Hypothesis for the Evolution of Sex Chromosome Gene Content.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Extensive Recombination Suppression and Genetic Degeneration of a Young ZW Sex Chromosome System in Halfbeak Fish.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Repeatome Dynamics and Sex Chromosome Differentiation in the XY and XYInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Repeated loss of function at HD mating-type genes and of recombination in anther-smut fungi.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Genetic differentiation in the MAT-proximal region is not sufficient for suppressing recombination in Podospora anserina.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Article
- Reduced Efficacy of Selection on a Young Z Chromosome Region of Schistosoma japonicum.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Sex Chromosome Turnovers and Stability in Snakes.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Orthopteran Neo-Sex Chromosomes Reveal Dynamics of Recombination Suppression and Evolution of Supergenes.Molecular ecology · 2024Article
- ZW sex chromosome structure in Amborella trichopoda.Nature plants · 2024Article
- Single-cell RNA-seq of Drosophila miranda testis reveals the evolution and trajectory of germline sex chromosome regulation.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Heteromorphic ZZ/ZW sex chromosomes sharing gene content with mammalian XX/XY are conserved in Madagascan chameleons of the genus Furcifer.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Evolution of a plant sex chromosome driven by expanding pericentromeric recombination suppression.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Pericentromeric recombination suppression and the 'large X effect' in plants.Scientific reports · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Genetic degeneration is an extraordinary feature of sex chromosomes, with the loss of functions of Y-linked genes in species with XY systems, and W-linked genes in ZW systems, eventually affecting almost all genes. Although degeneration is familiar to most biologists, important aspects are not yet well understood, including how quickly a Y or W chromosome can become completely degenerated. I review the current understanding of the time-course of degeneration. Degeneration starts after crossing over between the sex chromosome pair stops, and theoretical models predict an initially fast degeneration rate and a later much slower one. It has become possible to estimate the two quantities that the models suggest are the most important in determining degeneration rates-the size of the sex-linked region, and the time when recombination became suppressed (which can be estimated using Y-X or W-Z sequence divergence). However, quantifying degeneration is still difficult. I review evidence on gene losses (based on coverage analysis) or loss of function (by classifying coding sequences into functional alleles and pseudogenes). I also review evidence about whether small genome regions degenerate, or only large ones, whether selective constraints on the genes in a sex-linked region also strongly affect degeneration rates, and about how long it takes before all (or almost all) genes are lost. This article is part of the theme issue 'Challenging the paradigm in sex chromosome evolution: empirical and theoretical insights with a focus on vertebrates (Part I)'.
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