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Diversified Sex Characteristics Developments in Teleost Fishes: Implication for Evolution of Androgen Receptor (AR) Gene Function

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Zebrafish, Medaka, and Other Small Fishes

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Abstract

Gene duplication is a dominant driving force of evolution. The steroid hormone receptor (SR) gene family is thought to have arisen from gene duplication. However, the molecular events which produce new protein functions after genome duplication have not been fully understood. Teleost fishes present an excellent model to investigate an accurate evolutionary history of protein function after whole genome duplication (WGD), because the teleost-specific WGD (TSGD) 350 million years ago (Ma) resulted in a variety of duplicated genes that exist in modern fishes. We focused on the androgen receptor (AR) gene, since two different subtype genes, ARα and ARβ, were generated in the TSGD. It was previously shown that ARβ has retained the ancestral function, whereas ARα has evolved as a hyperactive form of AR in the teleost lineage. Such evolutionary novelty of protein function in AR genes might facilitate the emergence of divergent sex characteristics in the teleost lineage. Results of the combined functional and 3D analyses of medaka ARs identified the substitutions that led to changes in protein structure and function between medaka ARα and ARβ. By tracing evolutionary changes in protein function of ARs in teleost lineage, we recently revealed that the substitutions generating a new functionality of teleost ARα were fixed in the teleost genome after the divergence of the Elopomorpha lineage. Such findings would provide an historical explanation for the retention of the duplicated AR copies in the euteleost genome. We also highlighted the molecular mechanisms of secondary sex characteristics development in teleost fishes, using Western mosquitofish and medaka as models.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) [15K07138 (Y.O.), 15H04395 (Y.O.), 15H04396 (Y.O., T.I.)] from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS); UK-Japan Research Collaboration Grants (T.I.) from the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), UK; the NIBB Cooperative Research Program (Y.O.) from National Institute for Basic Biology; The 2nd Women Researchers Promotion Program (Y.O.), Support for childbirth and childcare in Women Researchers Promotion Program (Y.O.) and Support for Women Returning from Maternity and Parental Leave from Kyushu University (Y.O.); The Naito Foundation (Y.O.). We thank Dr. Mike Roberts, DEFRA, UK, for his critical reading of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Attached Promotive Centre for International Education and Research of Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Yukiko Ogino

  2. Department of Developmental Genetics, Institute of Advanced Medicine, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama, Wakayama, Japan

    Gen Yamada

  3. Graduate School of Nanobioscience, Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan

    Taisen Iguchi

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  1. Yukiko Ogino
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  2. Gen Yamada
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  3. Taisen Iguchi
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Correspondence to Yukiko Ogino .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Science and Engineering, Aoyama Gakuin University, Sagamihara, Japan

    Hiromi Hirata

  2. Institute for Frontier Life and Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Atsuo Iida

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Ogino, Y., Yamada, G., Iguchi, T. (2018). Diversified Sex Characteristics Developments in Teleost Fishes: Implication for Evolution of Androgen Receptor (AR) Gene Function. In: Hirata, H., Iida, A. (eds) Zebrafish, Medaka, and Other Small Fishes. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1879-5_7

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