A single gene orchestrates androgen variation underlying male mating morphs in ruffs

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Loveland, Jasmine L.; Zemella, Alex; Jovanovic, Vladimir M.; Moeller, Gabriele; Sager, Christoph P.; Bastos, Barbara; Dyar, Kenneth A.; Fusani, Leonida; Gahr, Manfred; Giraldo-Deck, Lina M.; Goymann, Wolfgang; Lank, David B.; Tokarz, Janina; Nowick, Katja; Kuepper, Clemens
• 署名单位: University of Vienna; Free University of Berlin; Free University of Berlin; Helmholtz Association; Helmholtz-Center Munich - German Research Center for Environmental Health; Universidade do Porto; University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna; University of Munich; Simon Fraser University
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-10544
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adp5936
• 发表日期: 2025-01-24
• 页码: 406-412
• 关键词: social-behavior network; hormonal pleiotropy; japanese-quail; messenger-rna; male traits; testosterone; SYSTEM; brain; EVOLUTION; performance

摘要

Androgens are pleiotropic and play pivotal roles in the formation and variation of sexual phenotypes. We show that differences in circulating androgens between the three male mating morphs in ruff sandpipers are linked to 17-beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 2 (HSD17B2), encoded by a gene within the supergene that determines the morphs. Low-testosterone males had higher HSD17B2 expression in blood than high-testosterone males, as well as in brain areas related to social behaviors and testosterone production. Derived HSD17B2 isozymes, which are absent in high-testosterone males but preferentially expressed in low-testosterone males, converted testosterone to androstenedione faster than the ancestral isozyme. Thus, a combination of evolutionary changes in regulation, sequence, and structure of a single gene introduces endocrine variation underlying reproductive phenotypes.