Y-chromosome turnover in Drosophila – Escaping from an evolutionary dead-end?

The Y chromosome (Y, hereafter) is degenerated in many organisms but cannot be lost due to their important functions in sex determination and/or male fertility. This is true for Drosophila and an individual without Y become a sterile male. Therefore, the Y has been considered as indispensable in Drosophila as in the case of mammals. However, we recently discovered that Drosophila lacteicornis, endemic to Ryukyu islands, is polymorphic in terms of the presence or absence of the Y; i.e., XY and XO males coexist within species. Unlike other Drosophila species, the XO males of this species are fertile. In this seminar, I will introduce how the Y becomes dispensable in this species. To our surprise, our genome and transcriptome analyses revealed that a novel Y is likely emerging in this species rather than an old Y is being lost. In other words, a turnover of the Y is ongoing in this species. Our results indicate that the Y is not necessarily a static entity in an evolutionary dead-end but can be a dynamic entity, sometimes going back to an autosome or even disappearing. Therefore, I would like to emphasize that we should understand the evolution of sex chromosomes not by a one-way path to dead-end but by a circular process, i.e., “sex-chromosome cycle.”