Abstract
The crustacean isopod species Asellus aquaticus does not usually have recognizable sex chromosomes. We previously identified a Y chromosome marked by two heterochromatic bands in some males of a population from the Sarno river near Naples. In this work we used oligonucleotide probes to test the presence and possible sex-specific distribution of five simple repeat motifs in the genome of male and female individuals from the Sarno population. The five oligonucleotide probes were hybridized to enzyme-restricted genomic DNAs and the chromosome location of two probes was tested using fluorescence in situ hybridization. Our results show that only the (TCC)n repetitive simple sequence has a sex-specific hybridization pattern and presents a significant accumulation on the Y chromosome in the region included between the two heterochromatic areas. Moreover the GGAAT sequence is not present in the genome of A. aquaticus in any detectable quantity.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Bull, J J. 1983. Evolution of Sex Determining Mechanisms. Benjamin/Cummings, Menlo Park, CA.
Charlesworth, B. 1991. The evolution of sex chromosomes. Science, 251, 1030–1033.
Cooke, H J. 1976. Repeated sequence specific to human males. Nature, 262, 182–186.
Di Castro, M, Prantera, G, Cipriani, L, and Rocchi, A. 1983. Silver staining analysis of nucleolar organizer activity during spermatogenesis of Asellus aquaticus (Crustacea, Isopoda). Genetica, 60, 163–166.
Epplen, J T. 1988. On the simple repeated GATA sequences in animal genomes: a critical reappraisal. J Hered, 79, 409–417.
Gisburger-Vogel, T, and Charniaux-Cotton, H. 1982. Sex determination. In: Bliss, D. E. (ed.) Biology of Crustacea, pp. 257–281. Academic Press, New York, London.
Grady, D L, Ratliff, R L, Robinson, D L, McCanlies, E C, Meyne, J, and Moyzis, R K. 1992. Highly conserved repetitive DNA sequences are present at human centromeres. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 89, 1695–1699.
Hamada, H, Petrino, M G, and Kakunaga, T. 1982. A novel repeated element with Z-DNA-forming potential is widely found in evolutionarily diverse eukaryotic genomes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 79, 6465–6469.
Udo, J W, Wells, R A, Baldini, A, and Reeders, S T. 1991. Improved telomere detection using a telomere repeat probe (TTAGGG)n generated by PCR. Nucl Acids Res, 19, 4780.
John, B. 1988. The biology of heterochromatin. In: Verma R. S. (ed.) Heterochromatin: Molecular and Structural Aspects, pp. 1–147. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Jones, K W, and Singh, L. 1985. Snakes and the evolution of sex chromosomes. Trends Genet, 1, 55–61.
Legrand, J J, Legrand-Hamelin, E, and Juchault, P. 1987. Sex determination in Crustacea. Biol Rev Camb Phil Soc, 62, 439–470.
Muller, H J. 1964. The relation of recombination to mutational advance. Mutat Res, 1, 2–9.
Nakaori, Y, Mitani, K, Yamada, M, and Nagakome, Y. 1986. A human Y chromosome specific repeated DNA family (DYZ1) consists of a tandem array of pentanucleotides. Nucl Acids Res, 14, 7569–7580.
Nanda, I, Feichtinger, W, Schmid, M, Schröder, J H, Zischler, H, and Epplen, J T. 1990. Simple repetitive sequences are associated with differentiation of sex chromosomes in the guppy fish. J Mol Evol, 30, 456–462.
Nanda, I, Scharlt, M, Feichtinger, W, Epplen, J T, and Schmid, M. 1992. Early stages of sex chromosome differentiation in fish as analysed by simple repetitive DNA sequences. Chromosoma, 101, 301–310.
Nanda, I, Zischler, H, Epplen, G, Guttenbach, M, and Schmid, M. 1991. Chromosomal organization of simple repeat DNA sequences used for DNA fingerprinting. Electrophoresis, 12, 193–203.
Pelliccia, F, Castro, M, Lanza, V, Volpi, E V, and Rocchi, A. 1991. GATA repeats in the genome of Asellus aquaticus (Crustacea, Isopoda). Chromosoma, 100, 152–155.
Pelliccia, E, Volpi, E V, Lanza, V, Gaddini, L, Baldini, A, and Rocchi, A. 1994. Telomeric sequences of Asellus aquaticus (Crust. Isop.). Heredity, 72, 78–80.
Rocchi, A, Prantera, G, and Di Castro, M. 1980. A study of heterochromatin of Asellus aquaticus (Crust. Isop.). Caryologia, 33, 401–409.
Rocchi, A, Prantera, G, Lanza, V, and Di Castro, M. 1984. Incipient sex chromosome differentiation in an isopod crustacean species, Asellus aquaticus. Chromosoma, 89, 193–196.
Schäfer, R, Ali, S, and Epplen, J T. 1986. The organization of the evolutionarily conserved GATA/GACA repeats in the mouse genome. Chromosoma, 93, 502–510.
Schweizer, D, and Loidl, J. 1987. A model for heterochromatin dispersion and the evolution of C-band patterns. In: Stahl, A., Luciani, J. M. and Vagner-Capodanno, A. M. (eds) Chromosomes Today, 9, pp. 61–74. Allen and Unwin, London.
Tautz, D, Trick, M, and Dover, G A. 1986. Cryptic simplicity in DNA is a major source of genetic variation. Nature, 322, 652–656.
Volpi, E V, Pelliccia, F, Lanza, V, Di Castro, M, and Rocchi, A. 1992. Morphological differentiation of a sex chromosome and ribosomal genes in Asellus aquaticus (Crust. Isop.). Heredity, 69, 478–482.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Volpi, E., Pelliccia, F., Lanza, V. et al. Simple DNA repeats and sex chromosome differentiation in Asellus aquaticus (Crustacea, Isopoda). Heredity 75, 267–272 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1995.134
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1995.134