{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,21]],"date-time":"2026-01-21T20:23:05Z","timestamp":1769026985281,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,23]],"date-time":"2024-05-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1716422400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["32270553"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32270553"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["AHSC202302"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["AHSC202302"]}]},{"name":"Open Project of Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Aquaculture and Stock Enhancement, China","award":["32270553"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32270553"]}]},{"name":"Open Project of Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Aquaculture and Stock Enhancement, China","award":["AHSC202302"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["AHSC202302"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Genes"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The sex chromosomes of skinks are usually poorly differentiated and hardly distinguished by cytogenetic methods. Therefore, identifying sex chromosomes in species lacking easily recognizable heteromorphic sex chromosomes is necessary to fully understand sex chromosome diversity. In this paper, we employed cytogenetics, sex quantification of genes, and transcriptomic approaches to characterize the sex chromosomes in Plestiodon elegans. Cytogenetic examination of metaphases revealed a diploid number of 2n = 26, consisting of 12 macrochromosomes and 14 microchromosomes, with no significant heteromorphic chromosome pairs, speculating that the sex chromosomes may be homomorphic or poorly differentiated. The results of the sex quantification of genes showed that Calumenin (calu), COPI coat complex subunit \u03b3 2 (copg2), and Smoothened (smo) were at half the dose in males as in females, suggesting that they are on the X chromosome. Transcriptomic data analysis from the gonads yielded the excess expression male-specific genes (n = 16), in which five PCR molecular markers were developed. Restricting the observed heterozygosity to males suggests the presence of homomorphic sex chromosomes in P. elegans, XX\/XY. This is the first breakthrough in the study of the sex chromosomes of Plestiodon.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/genes15060664","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,23]],"date-time":"2024-05-23T09:58:47Z","timestamp":1716458327000},"page":"664","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["The First Identification of Homomorphic XY Sex Chromosomes by Integrating Cytogenetic and Transcriptomic Approaches in Plestiodon elegans (Scincidae)"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0001-4642-1308","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Wannan","family":"Xu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation and Ecological Security in the Yangtze River Basin, College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China"},{"name":"Wuxi People\u2019s Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi 214023, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Taiyue","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation and Ecological Security in the Yangtze River Basin, College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jiahui","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation and Ecological Security in the Yangtze River Basin, College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Siqi","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation and Ecological Security in the Yangtze River Basin, College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xing","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation and Ecological Security in the Yangtze River Basin, College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Min","family":"Tang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation and Ecological Security in the Yangtze River Basin, College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jingxiu","family":"Dong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation and Ecological Security in the Yangtze River Basin, College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jianjun","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210098, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xingjiang","family":"Bu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation and Ecological Security in the Yangtze River Basin, College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xingquan","family":"Xia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation and Ecological Security in the Yangtze River Basin, College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5569-0083","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Huaxing","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Anhui Key Laboratory of Aquaculture & Stock Enhancement, Fisheries Research Institution, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei 230041, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Liuwang","family":"Nie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation and Ecological Security in the Yangtze River Basin, College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mart\u00ednez-Ju\u00e1rez, A., and Moreno-Mendoza, N. 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