Keywords: chromosome drive

Teosinte Pollen Drive guides maize domestication and evolution by RNAi

B. Berube , E. Ernst, J. Cahn, B. Roche, C. d. S. Alves, A. Scheben, A. Siepel, J. Ross-Ibarra, J. Kermicle and R. Martienssen,  bioRxiv,  2023.07.12.548689. 2023.
Meiotic drivers subvert Mendelian expectations by manipulating reproductive development to bias their own transmission. Chromosomal drive typically functions in asymmetric female meiosis, while gene drive is normally postmeiotic and typically found in males. Using single molecule ...
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Selfish centromeres and the wastefulness of human reproduction

L. D. Hurst,  PLOS Biology,  20:e3001671. 2022.
Many human embryos die in utero owing to an excess or deficit of chromosomes, a phenomenon known as aneuploidy; this is largely a consequence of nondisjunction during maternal meiosis I. Asymmetries of this division render it vulnerable to selfish centromeres that promote their ...
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Rye B chromosomes differently influence the expression of A chromosome-encoded genes depending on the host species

A. Boudichevskaia, A. Fiebig, K. Kumke, A. Himmelbach and A. Houben,  Chromosome Research,  2022.
The B chromosome (B) is a dispensable component of the genome in many species. To evaluate the impact of Bs on the transcriptome of the standard A chromosomes (A), comparative RNA-seq analyses of rye and wheat anthers with and without additional rye Bs were conducted. In both ...
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Centromere drive: model systems and experimental progress

D. Dudka and M. A. Lampson,  Chromosome Research,  2022.
Centromeres connect chromosomes and spindle microtubules to ensure faithful chromosome segregation. Paradoxically, despite this conserved function, centromeric DNA evolves rapidly and centromeric proteins show signatures of positive selection. The centromere drive hypothesis ...
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Meiotic behavior, transmission and active genes of B chromosomes in the cichlid Astatotilapia latifasciata: new clues about nature, evolution and maintenance of accessory elements

A. L. Cardoso, N. B. Venturelli, I. da Cruz, F. M. de Sá Patroni, D. de Moraes, R. A. de Oliveira, R. Benavente and C. Martins,  Molecular Genetics and Genomics,  2022.
Supernumerary B chromosomes (Bs) are dispensable genetic elements widespread in eukaryotes and are poorly understood mainly in relation to mechanisms of maintenance and transmission. The cichlid Astatotilapia latifasciata can harbor Bs in a range of 0 (named B -) and 1-2 (named ...
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Supergene potential of a selfish centromere

F. Finseth, K. Brown, A. Demaree and L. Fishman,  Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci,  377:20210208. 2022.
Selfishly evolving centromeres bias their transmission by exploiting the asymmetry of female meiosis and preferentially segregating to the egg. Such female meiotic drive systems have the potential to be supergenes, with multiple linked loci contributing to drive costs or ...
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Mitotic exchange in female germline stem cells is the major source of Sex Ratio chromosome recombination in Drosophila pseudoobscura

S. Koury,  bioRxiv,  2022.06.07.495109. 2022.
Sex Ratio chromosomes in Drosophila pseudoobscura are selfish X chromosome variants associated with three non-overlapping inversions. In the male germline, Sex Ratio chromosomes distort segregation of X and Y chromosomes (99:1), thereby skewing progeny sex ratio. In the female ...
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The maize abnormal chromosome 10 meiotic drive haplotype: a review

R. K. Dawe,  Chromosome Research,  2022.
The maize abnormal chromosome 10 (Ab10) haplotype encodes a meiotic drive system that converts heterochromatic knobs into centromere-like bodies that are preferentially segregated through female meiosis. Ab10 was first described in the 1940s and has been intensively studied. Here ...
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Studying the active role of the maize B chromosome in the modulation of gene expression

University of Missouri,  Phys Org,  2022.
A team of University of Missouri biologists has made a new discovery that provides novel insights into the function and properties of the maize B chromosome. The study was led by Dr. Xiaowen Shi and Dr. Hua Yang, postdoctoral fellows in the Birchler lab, and reported in the ...
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Exploiting a Y chromosome-linked Cas9 for sex selection and gene drive

S. Gamez, D. Chaverra-Rodriguez, A. Buchman, N. P. Kandul, S. C. Mendez-Sanchez, J. B. Bennett, C. H. Sánchez, T. Yang, I. Antoshechkin, J. E. Duque, P. A. Papathanos, J. M. Marshall and O. S. Akbari,  Nature Communications,  7202. 2021.
CRISPR-based genetic engineering tools aimed to bias sex ratios, or drive effector genes into animal populations, often integrate the transgenes into autosomal chromosomes. However, in species with heterogametic sex chromsomes (e.g. XY, ZW), sex linkage of endonucleases could be ...
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Synthetic sex ratio distorters based on CRISPR for the control of harmful insect populations

Fasulo, B., Meccariello, A., Papathanos, P. A., and Windbichler, N.,  AREA-WIDE INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT: Development and Field Application,  2021.
Since the overall reproductive output of a population is typically determined by the fertility of its females, which are rate-limiting in gamete production, a successful way to genetically control a population should involve artificially biasing the sex ratio towards males. In ...
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Meiotic self-pairing of the Psalidodon (Characiformes, Characidae) iso-B chromosome: A successful perpetuation mechanism

D. Silva, C. Araya-Jaime, M. Yamashita, M. R. Vidal, C. Oliveira, F. Porto-Foresti, R. F. Artoni and F. Foresti,  Genetics and Molecular Biology,  44:e20210084. 2021.
B chromosomes are non-essential additional genomic elements present in several animal and plant species. In fishes, species of the genus Psalidodon (Characiformes, Characidae) harbor great karyotype diversity, and multiple populations carry different types of non-essential B ...
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Haldane’s duel: intragenomic conflict, selfish Y chromosomes and speciation

S. W. Roy,  Trends in Genetics,  2021.
Haldane?s rule, which states that the heterogametic sex (XY or ZW females) fares more poorly in interspecific hybrids, is generally attributed to absence of one of the two species' X/Z chromosomes. However, Haldane?s rule is also observed in mouse placentas despite paternal X ...
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Nondisjunction and unequal spindle organization accompany the drive of Aegilops speltoides B chromosomes

D. Wu, A. Ruban, J. Fuchs, J. Macas, P. Novák, M. Vaio, Y. Zhou and A. Houben,  New Phytologist,  223:1340-1352. 2021.
B chromosomes (Bs) are supernumerary chromosomes, which are often preferentially inherited. When transmission rates of chromosomes are higher than 0.5, not obeying the Mendelian law of equal segregation, the resulting transmission advantage is collectively referred to as ...
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Selfish chromosomal drive shapes recent centromeric histone evolution in monkeyflowers

F. R. Finseth, T. C. Nelson and L. Fishman,  PLOS Genetics,  17:e1009418. 2021.
Centromeres must mediate faithful chromosomal transmission during cell division and sexual reproduction, but both the DNA and protein components of centromeres diverge rapidly across species. The selfish centromere model argues that this paradoxical diversity results from a ...
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Chromosome drives via CRISPR-Cas9 in yeast

H. Xu, M. Han, S. Zhou, B.-Z. Li, Y. Wu and Y.-J. Yuan,  Nature Communications,  11:4344. 2020.
Our results show that the entire Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome can be eliminated efficiently through only one double-strand break around the centromere via CRISPR-Cas9. As a proof-of-concept experiment of this CRISPR-Cas9 chromosome drive system, the synthetic yeast ...
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Extensive Recombination Suppression and Epistatic Selection Causes Chromosome-Wide Differentiation of a Selfish Sex Chromosome in Drosophila pseudoobscura

Z. L. Fuller, S. A. Koury, C. J. Leonard, R. E. Young, K. Ikegami, J. Westlake, S. Richards, S. W. Schaeffer and N. Phadnis,  Genetics,  216:205. 2020.
Here, we conduct a multifaceted study of the multiply inverted Drosophila pseudoobscura SR chromosome to understand the evolutionary history, genetic architecture, and present-day dynamics that shape this enigmatic selfish chromosome.
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