Many Y's in Monotremes: Multiple Sex Chromosomes and Sex Determination in Platypus and Echidna

Extraordinary biology and their evolutionary position make Australia s monotremes uniquely valuable for understanding mammalian genome function and evolution. Our recent discovery of ten sex chromosomes in platypus that links mammal and bird sex creates completely new perspectives for sex chromosome function, evolution and sex determination in mammals. We will identify new candidate sex determination and spermatogenesis genes from monotreme sex chromosomes and study their function and meiotic organization. We will discover how they determine and differentiate sex. We will setup an Australian Monotreme Resource Centre for our own research, for worldwide high profile collaboration and to ensure Australia s leading role in monotreme genetics.