The Genetics and Genomics of Sex-Ratio Meiotic Drive in Drosophila Affinis

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

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Abstract

Sex-ratio meiotic drive is found in diverse groups of metazoans including arthropods, mammals and plants. Drive occurs because a selfish sex chromosome, usually the X chromosome, is able to debilitate the opposite sex chromosome. The result is that males carrying the driving X chromosome produce almost all daughters. Understanding the genetics of sex-ratio meiotic drive has been hindered by the association of drive loci with large inversions. The Drosophila affinis sex-ratio system has an additional level o complexity: males lacking a Y chromosome are fertile. In fact, a male with a driving X chromosome and no Y produces mostly sons - the driving X appears to be suicidal in the absence of a Y chromosome. I propose a strategy using next generation sequencing for genomic analysis of sex-ratio meiotic drive in Drosophila affinis. Using a combination of comparative genomics of the driving and non-driving X chromosomes and transcriptomic analysis of both chromosomes in males testes, I hope to identify candidate genes involved in the drive phenotype. Subsequent analysis will help identify specific genes. The approach is novel in that I will be attempting to map genes within inversions in a non-model species, and the methods I develop will facilitate similar analysis in other systems. The biological insight obtaine from our analysis may shed light on the genetics of sex-ratio meiotic drive and sex chromosome evolution, both of which have implications for fertility.