ZW sex-determination system
Encyclopedia
The ZW sex-determination system is a system that determines the sex of offspring in bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s, some fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 and crustaceans such as the giant river prawn, some insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s (including butterflies and moth
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

s), and some reptiles, including Komodo dragon
Komodo dragon
The Komodo dragon , also known as the Komodo monitor, is a large species of lizard found in the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang and Gili Dasami. A member of the monitor lizard family , it is the largest living species of lizard, growing to a maximum length of in rare cases...

s. In the ZW system it is the ovum
Ovum
An ovum is a haploid female reproductive cell or gamete. Both animals and embryophytes have ova. The term ovule is used for the young ovum of an animal, as well as the plant structure that carries the female gametophyte and egg cell and develops into a seed after fertilization...

 that determines the sex of the offspring, in contrast to the XY sex-determination system
XY sex-determination system
The XY sex-determination system is the sex-determination system found in humans, most other mammals, some insects and some plants . In this system, females have two of the same kind of sex chromosome , and are called the homogametic sex. Males have two distinct sex chromosomes , and are called...

 and the X0 sex-determination system
X0 sex-determination system
The X0 sex-determination system is a system that hymenopterans, grasshoppers, crickets, cockroaches, and some other insects use to determine the sex of their offspring. In this system, there is only one sex chromosome, referred to as X. Males only have one X chromosome , while females have two...

, wherein it is the sperm
Sperm
The term sperm is derived from the Greek word sperma and refers to the male reproductive cells. In the types of sexual reproduction known as anisogamy and oogamy, there is a marked difference in the size of the gametes with the smaller one being termed the "male" or sperm cell...

 that determines the sex. The letters Z and W are used to distinguish this system from the XY system. Males are the homogametic sex (ZZ), while females are heterogametic (ZW). The Z chromosome is larger and has more genes, like the X chromosome in the XY system.

On November 3, 2010, scientists announced that they discovered a female Boa constrictor
Boa constrictor
The Boa constrictor is a large, heavy-bodied species of snake. It is a member of the family Boidae found in North, Central, and South America, as well as some islands in the Caribbean. A staple of private collections and public displays, its color pattern is highly variable yet distinctive...

that can produce offspring without mating and, through such asexual reproduction, produced 22 female offspring that all have a WW chromosome genetic makeup. Although this result has been achieved in laboratory settings previously, never before has it been proven under natural circumstances. It is not clear as to whether the all-female snake babies will eventually mate with a male, or reproduce asexually, or do both as their mother. But, because of their WW chromosomes, any offspring they produce will be female.

It is unknown whether the presence of the W chromosome induces female features or the duplication of the Z chromosome induces male ones; unlike mammals, no birds with a double W chromosome (ZWW) or a single Z (Z0) have been discovered. It is possible that either condition causes embryonic
Embryo
An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...

 death, or that both chromosomes are responsible for sex selection.

In Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...

 (moths and butterflies), examples of Z0, ZZW, and ZZWW females can be found. This suggests that the W chromosome is essential in female determination in some species (ZZW), but not in others (Z0). In Bombyx mori
Bombyx mori
The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of the domesticated silkmoth, Bombyx mori . It is an economically important insect, being a primary producer of silk...

(the commercial silkworm), the W chromosome carries the female-determining genes.

No genes are shared between the avian ZW and mammal XY chromosomes, and, from a comparison between chicken and human, the Z chromosome appeared similar to the autosomal chromosome 9 in human, rather than X or Y, leading researchers to believe the ZW and XY sex determination systems do not share an origin, but that the sex chromosomes are derived from autosomal chromosomes of the common ancestor. A paper from 2004 compared the chicken Z chromosome with platypus
Platypus
The platypus is a semi-aquatic mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young...

 X chromosomes and suggested that the two systems are related. The platypus has a ten-chromosome
Chromosome
A chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions.Chromosomes...

–based system, where the chromosomes form a multivalent chain in male meiosis
Meiosis
Meiosis is a special type of cell division necessary for sexual reproduction. The cells produced by meiosis are gametes or spores. The animals' gametes are called sperm and egg cells....

, segregating into XXXXX-sperm and YYYYY-sperm, with XY-equivalent chromosomes at one end of this chain and the ZW-equivalent chromosomes at the other end according to the paper.

See also

  • Sex-determination system
    Sex-determination system
    A sex-determination system is a biological system that determines the development of sexual characteristics in an organism. Most sexual organisms have two sexes. In many cases, sex determination is genetic: males and females have different alleles or even different genes that specify their sexual...

  • Sexual differentiation
    Sexual differentiation
    Sexual differentiation is the process of development of the differences between males and females from an undifferentiated zygote...

  • Haplodiploid sex-determination system
  • XY sex-determination system
    XY sex-determination system
    The XY sex-determination system is the sex-determination system found in humans, most other mammals, some insects and some plants . In this system, females have two of the same kind of sex chromosome , and are called the homogametic sex. Males have two distinct sex chromosomes , and are called...

  • X0 sex-determination system
    X0 sex-determination system
    The X0 sex-determination system is a system that hymenopterans, grasshoppers, crickets, cockroaches, and some other insects use to determine the sex of their offspring. In this system, there is only one sex chromosome, referred to as X. Males only have one X chromosome , while females have two...

  • Temperature dependent sex determination
  • X chromosome
    X chromosome
    The X chromosome is one of the two sex-determining chromosomes in many animal species, including mammals and is common in both males and females. It is a part of the XY sex-determination system and X0 sex-determination system...

  • Y chromosome
    Y chromosome
    The Y chromosome is one of the two sex-determining chromosomes in most mammals, including humans. In mammals, it contains the gene SRY, which triggers testis development if present. The human Y chromosome is composed of about 60 million base pairs...

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