TY - JOUR
T1 - Mammalian Sex Chromosome Structure, Gene Content, and Function in Male Fertility
AU - Liu, Wan Sheng
N1 - Funding Information:
The author wishes to thank Dr. Chad Dechow and Dr. Cooduvalli Shashikant for careful reading of the manuscript and for their helpful comments and suggestions. This work was supported, in part, by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture (grant no. 2018-67015-27576), and by a TSF-CURE grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Health to W.-S. Liu.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2019 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/2/15
Y1 - 2019/2/15
N2 - Mammalian sex chromosomes evolved from an ordinary pair of autosomes. The X chromosome is highly conserved, whereas the Y chromosome varies among species in size, structure, and gene content. Unlike autosomes that contain randomly mixed collections of genes, the sex chromosomes are enriched in testis-biased genes related to sexual development and reproduction, particularly in spermatogenesis and male fertility. This review focuses on how sex chromosome dosage compensation takes place and why meiotic sex chromosome inactivation occurs during spermatogenesis. Furthermore, the review also emphasizes how testis-biased genes are enriched on the sex chromosomes and their functions in male fertility. It is concluded that sex chromosomes are critical to sexual development and male fertility; however, our understanding of how sex chromosome genes direct sexual development and fertility has been hampered by the structural complexities of the sex chromosomes and by the multicopy nature of the testis gene families that also play a role in immunity, cancer development, and brain function.
AB - Mammalian sex chromosomes evolved from an ordinary pair of autosomes. The X chromosome is highly conserved, whereas the Y chromosome varies among species in size, structure, and gene content. Unlike autosomes that contain randomly mixed collections of genes, the sex chromosomes are enriched in testis-biased genes related to sexual development and reproduction, particularly in spermatogenesis and male fertility. This review focuses on how sex chromosome dosage compensation takes place and why meiotic sex chromosome inactivation occurs during spermatogenesis. Furthermore, the review also emphasizes how testis-biased genes are enriched on the sex chromosomes and their functions in male fertility. It is concluded that sex chromosomes are critical to sexual development and male fertility; however, our understanding of how sex chromosome genes direct sexual development and fertility has been hampered by the structural complexities of the sex chromosomes and by the multicopy nature of the testis gene families that also play a role in immunity, cancer development, and brain function.
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U2 - 10.1146/annurev-animal-020518-115332
DO - 10.1146/annurev-animal-020518-115332
M3 - Review article
C2 - 30412673
AN - SCOPUS:85061622347
SN - 2165-8102
VL - 7
SP - 103
EP - 124
JO - Annual Review of Animal Biosciences
JF - Annual Review of Animal Biosciences
ER -
