Published in

National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 15(113), 2016

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1525164113

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Radical remodeling of the Y chromosome in a recent radiation of malaria mosquitoes

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Significance Interest in male mosquitoes has been motivated by the potential to develop novel vector control strategies, exploiting the fact that males do not feed on blood or transmit diseases, such as malaria. However, genetic studies of male Anopheles mosquitoes have been impeded by the lack of molecular characterization of the Y chromosome. Here we show that the Anopheles gambiae Y chromosome contains a very small repertoire of genes, with massively amplified tandem arrays of a small number of satellites and transposable elements constituting the vast majority of the sequence. These genes and repeats evolve rapidly, bringing about remodeling of the Y, even among closely related species. Our study provides a long-awaited foundation for studying mosquito Y chromosome biology and evolution.