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Evolution of asymmetric gamete signaling and suppressed recombination at the mating type locus

Hadjivasiliou, Z; Pomiankowski, A; (2019) Evolution of asymmetric gamete signaling and suppressed recombination at the mating type locus. Elife , 8 , Article e48239. 10.7554/eLife.48239. Green open access

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Abstract

The two partners required for sexual reproduction are rarely the same. This pattern extends to species which lack sexual dimorphism yet possess self-incompatible gametes determined at mating-type regions of suppressed recombination, likely precursors of sex chromosomes. Here we investigate the role of cellular signaling in the evolution of mating-types. We develop a model of ligand-receptor dynamics, and identify factors that determine the capacity of cells to send and receive signals. The model specifies conditions favoring the evolution of gametes producing ligand and receptor asymmetrically and shows how these are affected by recombination. When the recombination rate evolves, the conditions favoring asymmetric signaling also favor tight linkage of ligand and receptor loci in distinct linkage groups. These results suggest that selection for asymmetric gamete signaling could be the first step in the evolution of non-recombinant mating-type loci, paving the road for the evolution of anisogamy and sexes.

Type: Article
Title: Evolution of asymmetric gamete signaling and suppressed recombination at the mating type locus
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.48239
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.48239.001
Language: English
Additional information: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Keywords: cell signalling, computational biology, evolutionary biology, linkage, mating-types, none, recombination, sex chromosomes, sexes, systems biology
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10081617
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