ArticleNature ecology & evolution2024
Parallel loss of sexual reproduction in field populations of a brown alga sheds light on the mechanisms underlying the emergence of asexuality.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Latent endogenous giant viruses drive active infection and inheritance in a multicellular algal host.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- Germline fate determination by a single ARGONAUTE protein inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Efficient CRISPR-Cas genome editing in brown algae.Cell reports methods · 2026Article
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9 authors.
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Abstract
Sexual reproduction is widespread, but asexual lineages have repeatedly arisen from sexual ancestors across a wide range of eukaryotic taxa. The molecular changes underpinning the switch to asexuality remain elusive, particularly in organisms with haploid sexual systems. Here we explore independent events of loss of sex in the brown alga Scytosiphon, examine the proximate and evolutionary mechanisms involved, and test the importance of sexual conflict on gene expression changes following loss of sex. We find that asexual females ('Amazons') lose ability to produce sex pheromone and, consequently, are incapable of attracting males, whereas they gain rapid parthenogenic development from large, unfertilized eggs. These phenotypic changes are accompanied by convergent changes in gene expression. Decay of female functions, rather than relaxation of sexual antagonism, may be a dominant force at play during the emergence of asexuality in haploid sexual systems. Moreover, we show that haploid purifying selection plays a key role in limiting the accumulation of deleterious alleles in Amazons, and we identify an autosomal locus associated with the Amazon phenotype. The sex chromosome, together with this autosomal locus, may underlie the switch to obligate asexuality in the Amazon populations.
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