{"corr_author":"1","date_created":"2026-03-23T15:05:42Z","date_updated":"2026-03-24T07:14:08Z","article_processing_charge":"Yes","status":"public","abstract":[{"text":"Sex-chromosome systems are highly variable across animals, but how they transition from one to another is not well understood. Diptera have undergone multiple sex-chromosome turnovers and expansions while maintaining their general chromosomal content, which makes them an ideal clade to study such transitions. We analyzed more than 100 dipteran whole-genome assemblies and identified 4 new lineages that underwent sex-chromosome turnover (in addition to the 5 previously reported). We find that the majority of turnovers happened in the group Schizophora, which tend to have fewer genes on Muller element F (the chromosome homologous to the ancestral insect X chromosome) than lower dipterans, a factor previously hypothesized to facilitate turnover. Most derived X chromosomes have higher GC content than autosomes, consistent with a high prevalence of male achiasmy in Diptera. In addition, an excess of gene movement out of the X is detected for most of these new X chromosomes, and many of these moved genes have high testis expression in Drosophila, suggesting that out-of-X gene movement contributes to the long-term demasculinization of X chromosomes.","lang":"eng"}],"publication_status":"epub_ahead","citation":{"ama":"Layana Franco LA, Toups MA, Vicoso B. Causes and consequences of sex-chromosome turnovers in Diptera. <i>Evolution Letters</i>. 2026. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrag003\">10.1093/evlett/qrag003</a>","ista":"Layana Franco LA, Toups MA, Vicoso B. 2026. Causes and consequences of sex-chromosome turnovers in Diptera. Evolution Letters., qrag003.","apa":"Layana Franco, L. A., Toups, M. A., &#38; Vicoso, B. (2026). Causes and consequences of sex-chromosome turnovers in Diptera. <i>Evolution Letters</i>. Oxford University Press. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrag003\">https://doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrag003</a>","chicago":"Layana Franco, Lorena Alexandra, Melissa A Toups, and Beatriz Vicoso. “Causes and Consequences of Sex-Chromosome Turnovers in Diptera.” <i>Evolution Letters</i>. Oxford University Press, 2026. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrag003\">https://doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrag003</a>.","ieee":"L. A. Layana Franco, M. A. Toups, and B. Vicoso, “Causes and consequences of sex-chromosome turnovers in Diptera,” <i>Evolution Letters</i>. Oxford University Press, 2026.","short":"L.A. Layana Franco, M.A. Toups, B. Vicoso, Evolution Letters (2026).","mla":"Layana Franco, Lorena Alexandra, et al. “Causes and Consequences of Sex-Chromosome Turnovers in Diptera.” <i>Evolution Letters</i>, qrag003, Oxford University Press, 2026, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrag003\">10.1093/evlett/qrag003</a>."},"OA_type":"gold","publication":"Evolution Letters","has_accepted_license":"1","year":"2026","author":[{"last_name":"Layana Franco","first_name":"Lorena Alexandra","full_name":"Layana Franco, Lorena Alexandra","orcid":"0000-0002-1253-6297","id":"02814589-eb8f-11eb-b029-a70074f3f18f"},{"last_name":"Toups","first_name":"Melissa A","full_name":"Toups, Melissa A","orcid":"0000-0002-9752-7380","id":"4E099E4E-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"id":"49E1C5C6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Vicoso","first_name":"Beatriz","full_name":"Vicoso, Beatriz","orcid":"0000-0002-4579-8306"}],"doi":"10.1093/evlett/qrag003","oa_version":"Published Version","project":[{"name":"Sex chromosomes in evolution and development","grant_number":"PAT 8748323","_id":"8ed82125-16d5-11f0-9cad-fbcae312235b"}],"quality_controlled":"1","oa":1,"main_file_link":[{"open_access":"1","url":"https://doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrag003"}],"user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","_id":"21486","article_number":"qrag003","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"publisher":"Oxford University Press","acknowledgement":"This work was supported by a grant from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF, grant number PAT 8748323) to B.V. We thank the Vicoso group for their feedback on an early version of the manuscript. We are grateful to Kamil Jaron and Julia Gries for helpful discussions and for sharing their unpublished work. Computational resources and support were provided by the Scientific Computing Unit at ISTA.","publication_identifier":{"eissn":["2056-3744"]},"OA_place":"publisher","department":[{"_id":"BeVi"},{"_id":"GradSch"}],"ddc":["570"],"type":"journal_article","DOAJ_listed":"1","title":"Causes and consequences of sex-chromosome turnovers in Diptera","tmp":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","image":"/images/cc_by.png","short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode"},"article_type":"original","day":"12","date_published":"2026-03-12T00:00:00Z","month":"03"}