Mathematical and empirical studies to understand sex chromosome evolution
Recombination is an important intra-cellular process that shuffles genotypes and produces novel alleles combinations. In particular, it increases diversity among populations, which can help species adapt to changing environments. Surprisingly, recombination is suppressed on large portions of sex chromosomes accross a large variety of species. The main explanation for this phenomenon is based on genetic conflicts between males and females. However, in fungi, where there are no differentiated male/female sexes but near-identical mating types, we still observe recombination suppression on mating type chromosomes. An alternative hypothesis is that recombination suppression is due to certain inversions of portions of these chromosomes. For this seminar, Loreleï Boyer will present how strata of recombination suppression are detected and how to study this hypothesis empirically by comparing inversions within species. Emilie Tezenas will adopt a more theoretical point of view, and describe the models used during her PhD to explore this hypothesis.
