{"doi":"10.1093/gbe/evae018","title":"Lack of Dosage Balance and Incomplete Dosage Compensation in the ZZ/ZW Gila Monster (<i>Heloderma suspectum</i>) Revealed by De Novo Genome Assembly","abstract":"Reptiles exhibit a variety of modes of sex determination, including both temperature-dependent and genetic mechanisms. Among those species with genetic sex determination, sex chromosomes of varying heterogamety (XX/XY and ZZ/ZW) have been observed with different degrees of differentiation. Karyotype studies have demonstrated that Gila monsters (Heloderma suspectum) have ZZ/ZW sex determination and this system is likely homologous to the ZZ/ZW system in the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis), but little else is known about their sex chromosomes. Here, we report the assembly and analysis of the Gila monster genome. We generated a de novo draft genome assembly for a male using 10X Genomics technology. We further generated and analyzed short-read whole genome sequencing and whole transcriptome sequencing data for three males and three females. By comparing female and male genomic data, we identified four putative Z chromosome scaffolds. These putative Z chromosome scaffolds are homologous to Z-linked scaffolds identified in the Komodo dragon. Further, by analyzing RNAseq data, we observed evidence of incomplete dosage compensation between the Gila monster Z chromosome and autosomes and a lack of balance in Z-linked expression between the sexes. In particular, we observe lower expression of the Z in females (ZW) than males (ZZ) on a global basis, though we find evidence suggesting local gene-by-gene compensation. This pattern has been observed in most other ZZ/ZW systems studied to date and may represent a general pattern for female heterogamety in vertebrates.","journal":"Genome Biology and Evolution","year":2024,"id":452510,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":14,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9456,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":497384,"name":"Annika Vannan","orcid":"0000-0001-7796-5597","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":565098,"name":"Brendan J. Pinto","orcid":"0000-0002-4243-5788","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1275233,"name":"Grant Denbrock","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1232599,"name":"Matheo Morales","orcid":"0000-0002-5240-0626","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":988584,"name":"Greer Dolby","orcid":"0000-0002-5923-0690","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":49022,"name":"Ian T. Fiddes","orcid":"0000-0002-1580-7443","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":729863,"name":"Dale F. DeNardo","orcid":"0000-0003-3145-8367","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":53929,"name":"Melissa A. Wilson","orcid":"0000-0002-2614-0285","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":376416,"name":"Timothy H. Webster","orcid":"0000-0003-1174-2395","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":88,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:02:54.415477Z","pmid":"38319079","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}