Abstract
Sexual development involves the successive and overlapping processes of sex determination, sexual differentiation, and ultimately sexual maturation, enabling animals to reproduce. This provides a mechanism for enriched genetic variation which enables populations to withstand ever-changing environments, selecting for adapted individuals and driving speciation. The molecular mechanisms of sexual development display a bewildering diversity, even in closely related taxa. Many sex determination mechanisms across animals include the key family of “doublesex- and male abnormal3-related transcription factors” (Dmrts). In a few exceptional species, a single Dmrt residing on a sex chromosome acts as the master sex regulator. In this study, we provide compelling evidence for this model of sex determination in the ornate spiny lobster Panulius ornatus, concurrent with recent reports in the eastern spiny lobster Sagmariasus verreauxi. Using a multi-tissue transcriptomic database established for P. ornatus, we screened for the key factors associated with sexual development (by homology search and using previous knowledge of these factors from related species), providing an in-depth understanding of sexual development in decapods. Further research has the potential to close significant gaps in our understanding of reproductive development in this ecologically and commercially significant order.
Highlights
Sexual development of many gonochoristic species initiates with either an environmental or a genetic cue, which sets in motion the sex determination cascade [1,2]
A refined list of genes related to sexual development was elucidated, with some that have clear roles and some that are yet to be defined [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]
Six mature ornate spiny lobsters (P. ornatus; three males and three females, 1.37–1.83 kg) were purchased from wild-caught stocks captured in the Torres Strait in 2019 and reared at the University of the Sunshine Coast for at least one month prior to dissections
Summary
Sexual development of many gonochoristic species (with discrete male and female morphs) initiates with either an environmental or a genetic cue, which sets in motion the sex determination cascade [1,2]. The gonads (either testes or ovaries) develop, alongside many other sexually dimorphic traits and behavioral patterns. A refined list of genes related to sexual development was elucidated, with some that have clear roles and some that are yet to be defined [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. While the sex determination cascade is highly variable, a widely conserved element has been the family of “doublesex- and male abnormal (MAB)-3-related transcription factors” (Dmrts)
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