Sperm quality, aggressiveness and generation turnover may facilitate unidirectional Y chromosome introgression across the European house mouse hybrid zone

0525308 - ÚBO 2021 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Vošlajerová Bímová, Barbora - Macholán, M. - Ďureje, Ľudovít - Berchová Bímová, K. - Martincová, Iva - Piálek, Jaroslav
Sperm quality, aggressiveness and generation turnover may facilitate unidirectional Y chromosome introgression across the European house mouse hybrid zone.
Heredity. Roč. 124, č. 4 (2020), s. 200-211. ISSN 0018-067X. E-ISSN 1365-2540
R&D Projects: GA ČR GA15-13265S; GA ČR(CZ) GA17-25320S
Institutional support: RVO:68081766
Keywords : mice Mus musculus * sex-chromosomes * segregation distortion * unisexual sterility * multiple paternity * inbred strains * x-chromosome * body-weight * gene flow * evolutionary
OECD category: Biology (theoretical, mathematical, thermal, cryobiology, biological rhythm), Evolutionary biology
Impact factor: 3.821, year: 2020
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41437-020-0330-z

The widespread and locally massive introgression of Y chromosomes of the eastern house mouse (Mus musculus musculus) into the range of the western subspecies (M. m. domesticus) in Central Europe calls for an explanation of its underlying mechanisms. Given the paternal inheritance pattern, obvious candidates for traits mediating the introgression are characters associated with sperm quantity and quality. We can also expect traits such as size, aggression or the length of generation cycles to facilitate the spread. We have created two consomic strains carrying the non-recombining region of the Y chromosome of the opposite subspecies, allowing us to study introgression in both directions, something impossible in nature due to the unidirectionality of introgression. We analyzed several traits potentially related to male fitness. Transmission of the domesticus Y onto the musculus background had negative effects on all studied traits. Likewise, domesticus males possessing the musculus Y had, on average, smaller body and testes and lower sperm count than the parental strain. However, the same consomic males tended to produce less- dissociated sperm heads, to win more dyadic encounters, and to have shorter generation cycles than pure domesticus males. These data suggest that the domesticus Y is
disadvantageous on the musculus background, while introgression in the opposite direction can confer a recognizable, though not always significant, selective advantage. Our results are thus congruent with the unidirectional musculus → domesticus Y chromosome introgression in Central Europe. In addition to some previous studies, they show this to be a multifaceted phenomenon demanding a multidisciplinary approach.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0309486


Research data: Dryad