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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Genet.
Sec. Evolutionary and Population Genetics
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1396530

Karyotype depends on sperm head morphology in some amniote groups

Provisionally accepted
Eric M. Kramer Eric M. Kramer 1*Joshua Enelamah Joshua Enelamah 2Hao Fang Hao Fang 2P A. Tayjasanant P A. Tayjasanant 2
  • 1 Physics, Bard College at Simon's Rock, Great Barrington, MA, United States
  • 2 Bard College at Simon's Rock, Great Barrington, Massachusetts, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The karyotype of an organism is the set of gross features that characterize the way the genome is packaged into separate chromosomes. It has been known for decades that different taxonomic groups often have distinct karyotypic features, but whether selective forces act to maintain these differences over evolutionary timescales is an open question. In this paper we analyze a database of karyotype features and sperm head morphology in 103 mammal species with spatulate sperm heads and 90 sauropsid species (birds and non-avian reptiles) with vermiform heads. We find that mammal species with a larger head area have more chromosomes, while sauropsid species with longer heads have a wider range of chromosome lengths. These results remain significant after controlling for genome size, so sperm head morphology is the relevant variable. This suggest that post-copulatory sexual selection, by acting on sperm head shape, can influence genome architecture.

    Keywords: karyotype evolution, spermiogenesis, chromosome packaging, Microchromosomes, amniotes, Spermatozoa

    Received: 05 Mar 2024; Accepted: 15 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kramer, Enelamah, Fang and Tayjasanant. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Eric M. Kramer, Physics, Bard College at Simon's Rock, Great Barrington, 01230, MA, United States

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