ARS | Publication request: THE EVOLUTION OF SEX CHROMOSOMES IN PAPAYA

Submitted to: Plant Animal and Microbe Genomes Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: October 5, 2005
Publication Date: January 20, 2006
Citation: Yu, Q., Moore, P.H., Alam, M., Jiang, J., Paterson, A.H., Vyskot, B., Ming, R. 2006. The evolution of sex chromosomes in papaya. Plant Animal and Microbe Genomes Conference XIV. W340, Pg. 85.

Technical Abstract: Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is one of plant species with male, female, and hermaphrodite plants. Sex determination in papaya is controlled by a primitive Y chromosome that contains a male-specific region with severe recombination suppression and DNA sequence degeneration. Our recent results showed that the male specific region of the papaya Y chromosome (MSY) is near the centromere and may have utilized the mechanism of suppression of recombination in the centromeric and pericentromeric region during its evolution. Extreme gene paucity is observed in the MSY near the centromere and only two functional genes have been identified to date. Despite its near centromeric location, the MSY sequence has extensively diverged from its X chromosome counterparts even within the conserved regions and the pericentromeric location of the MSY may have caused the accelerated degeneration of the Y chromosome. Our finding demonstrates a novel mechanism in sex chromosome evolution.