A long term demasculinization of X-linked intergenic noncoding RNAs in Drosophila melanogaster
- Ge Gao1,
- Maria D. Vibranovski2,
- Li Zhang1,
- Zheng Li1,
- Ming Liu1,
- Yong E Zhang3,
- Xinmin Li4,
- Wenxia Zhang1,
- Qichang Fan1,
- Nicholas W VanKuren4,
- Manyuan Long4,5 and
- Liping Wei1
- 1 Peking University;
- 2 Universidade de Sao Paulo;
- 3 Key Laboratory of the Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Chinese Academy of Sciences;
- 4 University of Chicago
- ↵* Corresponding author; email: mlong{at}uchicago.edu
Abstract
Recent studies revealed key roles of non-coding RNAs in sex-related pathways, but little is known about the evolutionary forces acting on these non-coding RNAs. Profiling the transcriptome of Drosophila melanogaster with whole-genome tiling arrays found that 15% of male-biased transcribed fragments (transfrags) are intergenic non-coding RNAs (incRNAs), suggesting a potentially important role for incRNAs in sex-related biological processes. Statistical analysis revealed a paucity of male-biased incRNAs and coding genes on the X chromosome, suggesting that similar evolutionary forces could be affecting the genomic organization of both coding and non-coding genes. Expression profiling across germline and somatic tissues further suggested that both male meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI) and sexual antagonism could contribute to the chromosomal distribution of male-biased incRNAs. Comparative sequence analysis showed that the evolutionary age of male-biased incRNAs is a significant predictor of their chromosomal locations. In addition to identifying abundant sex-biased incRNAs in fly genome, our work unveils a global picture of the complex interplay between non-coding RNAs and sexual chromosome evolution.
- Received September 1, 2013.
- Accepted December 28, 2013.
- Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
This manuscript is Open Access.
This article, published in Genome Research, is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.
