Alteration of the sex determining system resulting from structural change of the sex chromosomes in the frog Rana rugosa

Rana rugosa in Japan is divided into four geographical races on the basis of the karyotype of the sex chromosomes: one in which heteromorphic sex chromosomes occur in the female sex (ZW/ZZ-system), another in which they are present in males (XX/XY-system), and the remaining two in which no heteromorphism is seen in either sex. The last two inherit the XX/XY sex determining system. Y and Z chromosomes in the former two are of the same karyotype as the no. 7 chromosomes seen in one of the latter two, whereas X and W are caused by two inversions that occurred in the original Xs (no. 7). In this study, we first attempted to detect the structural difference between the resulting X and W by examining their chiasma formation. The chiasma distribution between X and W was closely similar to that between two Xs, suggesting that the W and X are identical in structure. Regarding the change from XX/XY- to ZW/ZZ-system, the simplest explanation is that the putative female-determining gene(s) on the W grew functionally stronger by inversions. Next, we examined the sex of triploids having two Xs and one Z. The data showed that the triploids with two original Xs and a Z were all male, whereas most of those with two resulting Xs and a Z developed into females as expected. We speculated that the female-determining gene(s) on the resulting X grew mildly stronger functionally by position effect, whereas those on the W grew much stronger for some other reason (e.g., duplication). J. Exp. Zool. 286:313-319, 2000.