Insect sex determination: it all evolves around transformer

Verhulst, Eveline C.; Zande, Louis van de; Beukeboom, Leo W.

doi:10.1016/j.gde.2010.05.001

Cited by 230 publications

(242 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…At the molecular level, sex determination in Drosophila is controlled by activation of the RNA processing gene Sexlethal (Sxl) in females but not males (Bell et al 1988;Salz and Erickson 2010;Verhulst et al 2010). XX dosage in females results in early expression of Sxl, which then initiates a cascade of alternative splicing events that ultimately regulate differential splicing of the transcription factors doublesex (dsx) and fruitless (fru) (Figure 2).…”

Section: Sex Determinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetics on the Fly: A Primer on theDrosophilaModel System

et al. 2015

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Fruit flies of the genus Drosophila have been an attractive and effective genetic model organism since Thomas Hunt Morgan and colleagues made seminal discoveries with them a century ago. Work with Drosophila has enabled dramatic advances in cell and developmental biology, neurobiology and behavior, molecular biology, evolutionary and population genetics, and other fields. With more tissue types and observable behaviors than in other short-generation model organisms, and with vast genome data available for many species within the genus, the fly's tractable complexity will continue to enable exciting opportunities to explore mechanisms of complex developmental programs, behaviors, and broader evolutionary questions. This primer describes the organism's natural history, the features of sequenced genomes within the genus, the wide range of available genetic tools and online resources, the types of biological questions Drosophila can help address, and historical milestones.

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Section: Sex Determinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetics on the Fly: A Primer on theDrosophilaModel System

et al. 2015

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“…The other (Tra-B) contains a partial SDP_N domain (E = 9.5 × 10 −4 ) and a nonsignificant match to Apis_CSD. Alternative splicing of transformer/ feminizer mRNA is known to play a crucial role in sex determination for many insects (47). Intriguingly, the S. invicta Tra-B transcript appears to have two different spliceforms, with only one spliceform including the SDP_N domain.…”

Section: Vg4mentioning

confidence: 99%

The genome of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta

Wurm

Wang

Riba‐Grognuz

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

326

338

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Ants have evolved very complex societies and are key ecosystem members. Some ants, such as the fire ant Solenopsis invicta, are also major pests. Here, we present a draft genome of S. invicta, assembled from Roche 454 and Illumina sequencing reads obtained from a focal haploid male and his brothers. We used comparative genomic methods to obtain insight into the unique features of the S. invicta genome. For example, we found that this genome harbors four adjacent copies of vitellogenin. A phylogenetic analysis revealed that an ancestral vitellogenin gene first underwent a duplication that was followed by possibly independent duplications of each of the daughter vitellogenins. The vitellogenin genes have undergone subfunctionalization with queen-and worker-specific expression, possibly reflecting differential selection acting on the queen and worker castes. Additionally, we identified more than 400 putative olfactory receptors of which at least 297 are intact. This represents the largest repertoire reported so far in insects. S. invicta also harbors an expansion of a specific family of lipid-processing genes, two putative orthologs to the transformer/feminizer sex differentiation gene, a functional DNA methylation system, and a single putative telomerase ortholog. EST data indicate that this S. invicta telomerase ortholog has at least four spliceforms that differ in their use of two sets of mutually exclusive exons. Some of these and other unique aspects of the fire ant genome are likely linked to the complex social behavior of this species.social insect | caste differences | nonmodel organism | de novo genome assembly

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“…No putative NvdsxRE sites for TRA-TRA2 binding were found. These sequences, which have been found in the hymenopteran Nasonia dsx (Verhulst et al 2010), have been also observed in the dsx gene of Aedes (Salvemini et al 2011) and Tribolium (Shukla and Palli 2012). Finally, no BmPSI-exonic splicing suppressor (BmPSI-ESS) sequences were detected in Scdsx pre-mRNA.…”

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confidence: 61%

“…Both proteins share the N-terminal domain, which contains a DNA-binding domain (DM domain). However, they differ in their C-terminal domains, which endow specific functions to these proteins (Burtis and Baker 1989;Hoshijima et al 1991).The search for genes orthologous to the sex-determination genes of D. melanogaster has been undertaken in other insects (reviewed in Sánchez 2008;Gempe and Beye 2010;Verhulst et al 2010). This was a first task of our Sciara project.…”

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confidence: 99%

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An Unusual Role fordoublesexin Sex Determination in the DipteranSciara

et al. 2015

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The gene doublesex, which is placed at the bottom of the sex-determination gene cascade, plays the ultimate discriminatory role for sex determination in insects. In all insects where this gene has been characterized, the dsx premessenger RNA (premRNA) follows a sex-specific splicing pattern, producing male-and female-specific mRNAs encoding the male-DSXM and female-DSXF proteins, which determine male and female development, respectively. This article reports the isolation and characterization of the gene doublesex of dipteran Sciara insects. The Sciara doublesex gene is constitutively transcribed during development and adult life of males and females. Sciara had no sex-specific doublesex mRNAs but the same transcripts, produced by alternative splicing of its primary transcript, were present in both sexes, although their relative abundance is sex specific. However, only the female DSXF protein, but not the male DSXM protein, was produced at similar amounts in both sexes. An analysis of the expression of female and male Sciara DSX proteins in Drosophila showed that these proteins conserved female and male function, respectively, on the control of Drosophila yolk-protein genes. The molecular evolution of gene doublesex of all insects where this gene has been characterized revealed that Sciara doublesex displays a considerable degree of divergence in its molecular organization and its splicing pattern with respect to the rest of dipterans as suggested by its basal position within the doublesex phylogeny. It is suggested that the doublesex gene is involved in Sciara sex determination although it appears not to play the discriminatory role performed in other insects.KEYWORDS sex determination; molecular evolution; Sciara; gene doublesex; genetics of sex M ALES and females are different at the morphological, physiological, and behavioral levels. This sexual dimorphism results from the integration of two processes: sex determination and sexual differentiation. Sex determination refers to the developmental program that commits the embryo to either the male or the female pathway. The genes underlying this phenomenon are the sex-determination genes. Sexual differentiation refers to the expression of the sex cytodifferentiation genes (which are controlled by the sex-determination genes), the expression of which gives rise to the formation of the sexually dimorphic structures that characterize the male and female adults.The animal kingdom possesses a wealth of mechanisms by which sex is decided (Bull 1983;Beukeboom and Perrin 2014). These mechanisms can be classified into three main categories, depending on the origin of the primary sexdetermination signal, which can be zygotic, maternal, or environmental. These three primary signals occur and are concatenated in the dipteran Sciara (for details see Sánchez 2010). Briefly, in Sciara, sex determination follows the XX/X0 mechanism: XX zygotes will develop as females and X0 zygotes will develop as males. Yet, the final chromosome constitution of the zygote, which start...

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Insect sex determination: it all evolves around transformer

Cited by 230 publications

References 69 publications

Genetics on the Fly: A Primer on theDrosophilaModel System

Genetics on the Fly: A Primer on theDrosophilaModel System

The genome of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta

An Unusual Role fordoublesexin Sex Determination in the DipteranSciara

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