Something Fishy about Siamese Fighting Fish (<i>Betta splendens</i>) Sex: Polygenic Sex Determination or a Newly Emerged Sex-Determining Region?

oleh: Thitipong Panthum, Kitipong Jaisamut, Worapong Singchat, Syed Farhan Ahmad, Lalida Kongkaew, Wongsathit Wongloet, Sahabhop Dokkaew, Ekaphan Kraichak, Narongrit Muangmai, Prateep Duengkae, Kornsorn Srikulnath

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-05-01

Deskripsi

Fishes provide a unique and intriguing model system for studying the genomic origin and evolutionary mechanisms underlying sex determination and high sex-chromosome turnover. In this study, the mode of sex determination was investigated in Siamese fighting fish, a species of commercial importance. Genome-wide SNP analyses were performed on 75 individuals (40 males and 35 females) across commercial populations to determine candidate sex-specific/sex-linked loci. In total, 73 male-specific loci were identified and mapped to a 5.6 kb region on chromosome 9, suggesting a putative male-determining region (pMDR) containing localized <i>dmrt1</i> and <i>znrf3</i> functional sex developmental genes. Repeat annotations of the pMDR revealed an abundance of transposable elements, particularly Ty3/Gypsy and novel repeats. Remarkably, two out of the 73 male-specific loci were located on chromosomes 7 and 19, implying the existence of polygenic sex determination. Besides male-specific loci, five female-specific loci on chromosome 9 were also observed in certain populations, indicating the possibility of a female-determining region and the polygenic nature of sex determination. An alternative explanation is that male-specific loci derived from other chromosomes or female-specific loci in Siamese fighting fish recently emerged as new sex-determining loci during domestication and repeated hybridization.