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This research focuses on a species of soft-shelled turtle, but the results may help clarify important evolutionary processes in many species.
Nicole Valenzue, professor of ecology, evolution, and organism biology, and lead author of the study Said Nicole Valenzuela
.
The sex of many organisms is determined by a pair of special chromosomes, which exist in almost every cell of the organism
.
A pair of matched chromosomes will produce one sex, and a pair of unmatched chromosomes will produce another sex
The focus of this research is on a soft-shelled turtle called Apalone spinifera, which is one of the largest freshwater turtles and lives in most parts of North America, including Iowa
.
But this research can also help scientists understand this process in other organisms
Valenzuela said: "Understanding the diversity of SCDC mechanisms in nature, how they occur and evolve, helps to understand more widely how animals and humans compensate for gene dose imbalances, and why failure to properly compensate for these differences can lead to disease states
.
"
The research was published this week in the peer-reviewed scientific journal "Journal of Philosophy B of the Royal Society
.
"
What is sex chromosome dose compensation?
Sex chromosome dose compensation works for individuals with mismatched sex chromosomes
.
In this study, the sex chromosomes of soft-shelled turtles are called Z and W, and the female chromosomes of this species are mismatched, or ZW
The Z chromosome contains instructions for some proteins that a normal functional cell should produce, and only one copy of a chromosome will reduce the number of proteins produced, because the production of proteins is often affected by the number of gene copies
.
More replication means more protein production
Valenzuela and her co-authors took samples at different stages of soft-shell turtle development, including embryos, juveniles, and adult turtles, and analyzed various tissues to determine which genes were activated
.
The researchers then compared the gene activity of sex chromosomes and autosomes, which are broken down by male and female turtles
This study is not only the first to analyze the dose compensation of sea turtle sex chromosomes, but the results also show that temperature seems to significantly affect the SCDC process of sea turtles
.
In previous studies, Valenzuela studied temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), which is the effect of environmental temperature on the development of male or female turtle embryos in species lacking sex chromosomes
The study found that in the early embryonic development process, the Zs activity of both males and females of the soft-shelled turtles doubled, which repaired the imbalance of ZW females' expression (the doubled Z expression now matches the autosomal expression)
.
But the same reaction created an imbalance in men (Z expression now doubles autosomal expression)