RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Stress, novel sex genes and epigenetic reprogramming orchestrate socially-controlled sex change
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 481143
DO 10.1101/481143
A1 Erica V Todd
A1 Oscar Ortega-Recalde
A1 Hui Liu
A1 Melissa S Lamm
A1 Kim M Rutherford
A1 Hugh Cross
A1 Michael A Black
A1 Olga Kardailsky
A1 Jennifer A Marshall Graves
A1 Timothy A Hore
A1 John R Godwin
A1 Neil J Gemmell
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/12/03/481143.abstract
AB Bluehead wrasses undergo dramatic, socially-cued female to male sex change. We apply transcriptomic and methylome approaches in this wild coral reef fish to identify the primary trigger and subsequent molecular cascade of gonadal metamorphosis. Our data suggest that the environmental stimulus is exerted via the stress axis, that repression of the aromatase gene (encoding the enzyme converting androgens to estrogens) triggers a cascaded collapse of feminizing gene expression, and identifies notable sex-specific gene neofunctionalization. Furthermore, sex change involves distinct epigenetic reprogramming and an intermediate state with altered epigenetic machinery expression akin to the early developmental cells of mammals. These findings reveal at a molecular level how a normally committed developmental process remains plastic and is reversed to completely alter organ structures.One Sentence Summary Ovary to testis transformation in a sex-changing fish involves transcriptomic and epigenomic reprogramming.