Remote-control meiotic drive of sex chromosomes

• Published in: bioRxiv
• Main Authors: Greenberg, Naomi L, Patten, Manus M, Schenkel, Martijn A
• Format: Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Cold Spring Harbor Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 21.11.2024; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
• Edition: 2.1
• Subjects: Chromosomes; Evolutionary Biology; Gene frequency; Meiosis; Meiotic drive; Population genetics; Sex chromosomes; Sex determination; Sex ratio
• ISSN: 2692-8205; 2692-8205
• DOI: 10.1101/2024.11.18.624228

Some selfish genetic elements drive at meiosis to achieve transmission distortion, breaking the rules of Mendelian segregation to enhance their own evolutionary success. It has been previously shown that positive modifiers of drive must act in cis in order to gain the selfish benefit of drive and that suppressors of drive will be selected at any unlinked loci. Here, we model the evolution of an autosomal trans-acting gene (Distorter) that causes the Y-chromosome (or even 0-chromosome) to drive. We show that such a gene may spread in the population when linked to a second locus, Assister, whose alleles are transmitted at different frequencies through sperm as compared to eggs, for which we consider various scenarios, e.g. genes subject to sexually antagonistic selection or sex-limited drive. Depending on the mechanistic details of sex-chromosome drive, Distorter's spread can additionally facilitate transitions between XY and X0 sex determination. We discuss these results in relation to sex allocation theory, and as proof of principle for a novel type of naturally occurring or synthetically useful sex-ratio-distorting selfish genetic element.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.