Assigning the Sex-Specific Markers via Genotyping-by-Sequencing onto the Y Chromosome for a Torrent Frog Amolops mantzorum

Abstract

We used a genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach to identify sex-linked markers in a torrent frog (Amolops mantzorum), using 21 male and 19 female wild-caught individuals from the same population. A total of 141 putatively sex-linked markers were screened from 1,015,964 GBS-tags via three approaches, respectively based on sex differences in allele frequencies, sex differences in heterozygosity, and sex-limited occurrence. With validations, 69 sex-linked markers were confirmed, all of which point to male heterogamety. The male specificity of eight sex markers was further verified by PCR amplifications, with a large number of additional individuals covering the whole geographic distribution of the species. Y chromosome (No. 5) was microdissected under a light microscope and amplified by whole-genome amplification, and a draft Y genome was assembled. Of the 69 sex-linked markers, 55 could be mapped to the Y chromosome assembly (i.e., 79.7%). Thus, chromosome 5 could be added as a candidate to the chromosomes that are particularly favored for recruitment in sex-determination in frogs. Three sex-linked markers that mapped onto the Y chromosome were aligned to three different promoter regions of the Rana rugosa CYP19A1 gene, which might be considered as a candidate gene for triggering sex-determination in A. mantzorum.