Multiple Transitions between Y Chromosome and Autosome in Tago's Brown Frog Species Complex.

Sex chromosome turnover is the transition between sex chromosomes and autosomes. Although many cases have been reported in poikilothermic vertebrates, their evolutionary causes and genetic mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we report multiple transitions between the Y chromosome and autosome in the Japanese Tago's brown frog complex. Using chromosome banding and molecular analyses (sex-linked and autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs, from the nuclear genome), we investigated the frogs of geographic populations ranging from northern to southern Japan of two species, Rana tagoi and Rana sakuraii (2n = 26). Particularly, the Chiba populations of East Japan and Akita populations of North Japan in R. tagoi have been, for the first time, investigated here. As a result, we identified three different sex chromosomes, namely chromosomes 3, 7, and 13, in the populations of the two species. Furthermore, we found that the transition between the Y chromosome (chromosome 7) and autosome was repeated through hybridization between two or three different populations belonging to the two species, followed by restricted chromosome introgression. These dynamic sex chromosome turnovers represent the first such findings in vertebrates and imply that speciation associated with inter- or intraspecific hybridization plays an important role in sex chromosome turnover in frogs.

Experience-dependent learning of behavioral laterality in the scale-eating cichlid Perissodus microlepis occurs during the early developmental stage.

Behavioral laterality-typically represented by human handedness-is widely observed among animals. However, how laterality is acquired during development remains largely unknown. Here, we examined the effect of behavioral experience on the acquisition of lateralized predation at different developmental stages of the scale-eating cichlid fish Perissodus microlepis. Naïve juvenile fish without previous scale-eating experience showed motivated attacks on prey goldfish and an innate attack side preference. Following short-term predation experience, naïve juveniles learned a pronounced lateralized attack using their slightly skewed mouth morphology, and improved the velocity and amplitude of body flexion to succeed in foraging scales during dominant-side attack. Naïve young fish, however, did not improve the dynamics of flexion movement, but progressively developed attack side preference and speed to approach the prey through predation experience. Thus, the cichlid learns different aspects of predation behavior at different developmental stages. In contrast, naïve adults lost the inherent laterality, and they neither developed the lateralized motions nor increased their success rate of predation, indicating that they missed appropriate learning opportunities for scale-eating skills. Therefore, we conclude that behavioral laterality of the cichlid fish requires the integration of genetic basis and behavioral experiences during early developmental stages, immediately after they start scale-eating.

Evolution of Sex Chromosome Heteromorphy in Geographic Populations of the Japanese Tago's Brown Frog Complex.

The sex chromosomes of most anuran amphibians are characterized by homomorphy in both sexes, and evolution to heteromorphy rarely occurs at the species or geographic population level. Here, we report sex chromosome heteromorphy in geographic populations of the Japanese Tago's brown frog complex (2n = 26), comprising Rana sakuraii and R. tagoi. The sex chromosomes of R. sakuraii from the populations in western Japan were homomorphic in both sexes, whereas chromosome 7 from the populations in eastern Japan were heteromorphic in males. Chromosome 7 of R. tagoi, which is distributed close to R. sakuraii in eastern Japan, was highly similar in morphology to the Y chromosome of R. sakuraii. Based on this and on mitochondrial gene sequence analysis, we hypothesize that in the R. sakuraii populations from eastern Japan the XY heteromorphic sex chromosome system was established by the introduction of chromosome 7 from R. tagoi via interspecies hybridization. In contrast, chromosome 13 of R. tagoi from the 2 large islands in western Japan, Shikoku and Kyushu, showed a heteromorphic pattern of constitutive heterochromatin distribution in males, while this pattern was homomorphic in females. Our study reveals that sex chromosome heteromorphy evolved independently at the geographic lineage level in this species complex.

Spontaneous tyrosinase mutations identified in albinos of three wild frog species.

The present study reports spontaneous tyrosinase gene mutations identified in oculocutaneous albinos of three Japanese wild frog species, Pelophylax nigromaculatus, Glandirana rugosa and Fejervarya kawamurai. This represents the first molecular analyses of albinic phenotypes in frogs. Albinos of P. nigromaculatus collected from two different populations were found to suffer from frameshift mutations. These mutations were caused by the insertion of a thymine residue within each of exons 1 and 4, while albinos in a third population lacked three nucleotides encoding lysine in exon 1. Albinos from the former two P. nigromaculatus populations were also associated with splicing variants of mRNA that lacked either exons 2-4 or exon 4. In the other two frog species examined, missense mutations that resulted in amino acid substitutions from glycine to arginine and glycine to aspartic acid were identified in exons 1 and 3, respectively. The two glycines in F. kawamurai and G. rugosa, and the lysine deleted in one P. nigromaculatus albino, were highly conserved in vertebrates, which suggested that they were situated in regions of critical importance to tyrosinase function. In fact, the glycine of G. rugosa is located within a predicted copper-binding domain. The five mutations identified in the present study are candidates for causing the albinic phenotypes, and, if directly confirmed, they are all unique among vertebrates, which suggests that molecular analysis of albino frogs could contribute to research on albinos in humans and vertebrates by providing new information about tyrosinase structure and transcript processing.