Abstract
The Indian garden lizard, Calotes versicolor, lacks cytologically recognizable sex chromosomes, and its mechanism of sex determination is unclear. We evaluated genotype-to-sex-phenotype association using RAD-seq in wild-caught males and females, 30 of each sex. Of 210,736 unique, 96-nt long RAD-tags, 48% contained polymorphisms, 23% of which were present in at least 40 of 60 individuals. Twenty one RAD-tags neared, but none achieved, the inclusion criteria for sex enrichment, as expected if C. versicolor lacks highly differentiated sex chromosomes. Three RAD-tags with alleles most strongly associated with sex tended to be heterozygous in females and to lack male-specific alleles, suggesting a ZW female/ZZ male system. Putative female alleles, however, were present in some males and lacking from some females, suggesting either recombination between these markers and the sex locus or sex reversal due to environmental or genetic factors. Paired-end, 250-nt reads from 1 male provided a fragmented draft genome assembly. Four sex-associated RAD-tags were identical to portions of 4 unique C. versicolor genomic contigs rather than linked to a single putative sex-linked region. The lack of strongly sex-linked loci coupled with weak evidence for temperature-associated sex determination intensifies the need for further investigation of the puzzling sex determination mechanism in C. versicolor.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.