Two Billion Years of Sex

Dear Colleagues,

Sexual reproduction and the division of individuals into separate sexes is ancient. It is not unreasonable to expect, therefore, that the mechanisms controlling sex be ancient too. The determinants of sex are extremely diverse across the tree of life. Despite decades of research, the control of sexual fate, the mechanisms behind evolutionary transitions in sex determination, and the turnover of sex chromosomes remain pivotal questions in evolutionary biology.

Evolutionary transitions in sex determination and turnover and the evolution of sex chromosomes are mostly frequently studied in mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, and each taxon has cogent arguments for their inclusion as an ideal model. For example, the conserved systems found within mammals and birds make these groups ideal for understanding the function of sex-determining genes, and the extreme lability of sex determination in reptiles and fish makes this group ideal for understanding the evolutionary transitions in sex-determining systems. However, taxonomic biases exist in terms of the model organisms used to understand the evolution of sex. Even within these well-studied groups, large knowledge gaps remain. Understanding sex and the mechanisms and drivers behind the multiple evolutionary turnovers observed requires investigation at deeper phylogenetic scales, going back to its inception nearly 2 billion years ago.

The purpose of this issue is to provide a taxonomically broad examination of sex, sex determination and sex chromosome turnover.

Dr. Peta Leanne Hill
Prof. Dr. Tariq Ezaz
Guest Editors

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• sex chromosomes
• sex determination
• separate sexes
• mating types
• XY
• ZW