AUTHOR=Wang Qiong , Lv Jianjian , Ren Xianyun , Wang Jiajia , Jia Shaoting , He Yuying , Li Jian 

TITLE=Evidences of Z- and W-Linked Regions on the Genome of Fenneropenaeus chinensis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.743727

DOI=10.3389/fmars.2021.743727

ISSN=2296-7745

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Fenneropenaeus chinensis</italic> is a commercially cultured shrimp in China. <italic>F. chinensis</italic> adults show significant sexual dimorphism, with larger females than males. However, sex determination (SD) of <italic>F. chinensis</italic> has not yet been elucidated. Clarification of the sex-determining system of <italic>F. chinensis</italic> could enrich our knowledge of the sex differentiation mechanism in crustaceans and facilitate the study of sex-controlling technologies. Here, we studied the sex-determining system of <italic>F. chinensis</italic> using the fixation index (<italic>F</italic><sub>ST</sub>) between the sexes to detect the genetic differentiation in resequencing data of multiple males and females. We located the candidate sex chromosome in the genome of <italic>F. chinensis</italic> and concluded the female heterogametic (ZW) SD system. We also assembled female-specific sequences, which could be used as molecular markers to identify the sex of <italic>F. chinensis</italic>. However, the differentiation of the <italic>F. chinensis</italic> Z and W chromosome is limited. RNA-seq data detected many genes with male-biased expression in the Z-specific region, which possibly could further intensify the divergency between the Z and W chromosomes.</p>