2006/01/17 by Judith E. Mank, Daniel Promislow, John C. Avise · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Animal Behavior and Reproduction #Biology #Clade #Evolutionary biology #Gene #Genetic and Clinical Aspects of Sex Determination and Chromosomal Abnormalities #Genetic diversity and population structure #Genetics #Heterogametic sex #Phylogenetic tree #Phylogenetics #Zoology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2006.00558.x
openalex publication_date 2006/01/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/19
We compiled information from the literature on the taxonomic distributions in extant teleost fishes of alternative sex-determination systems: male-heterogametic (XY) gonochorism, female-heterogametic (ZW) gonochorism, hermaphroditism, unisexuality, and environmental dependency. Then, using recently published molecular phylogenies based on whole-genomic or partial mitochondrial DNA sequences, we inferred the histories and evolutionary transitions between these reproductive modes by employing maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood methods of phylogenetic character mapping. Across a broad teleost phylogeny involving 25 taxonomic orders, a highly patchy distribution of different sex-determination mechanisms was uncovered, implying numerous transitions between alternative modes, but this heterogeneity also precluded definitive statements about ancestral states for most clades. Closer inspection of family-level and genus-level phylogenies within each of four orders further bolstered the conclusion that shifts in sex-determining modes are evolutionarily frequent and involve a variety of distinct ancestral-descendant pathways. For possible reasons discussed herein, the evolutionary lability of sex-determining modes in fishes contrasts strikingly with the evolutionary conservatism of sex determination within both mammals and birds.