A sex-ratio meiotic drive system in Drosophila simulans. I: an autosomal suppressor.

ABSTRACT: Sex ratio distortion (sex-ratio for short) has been reported in numerous species such as Drosophila, where distortion can readily be detected in experimental crosses, but the molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Here we characterize an autosomal sex-ratio suppressor from D. simulans that we designate as not much yang (nmy, polytene chromosome position 87F3). Nmy suppresses an X-linked sex-ratio distorter, contains a pair of near-perfect inverted repeats of 345 bp, and evidently originated through retrotransposition from the distorter itself. The suppression is likely mediated by sequence homology between the suppressor and distorter. The strength of sex-ratio is greatly enhanced by lower temperature. This temperature sensitivity was used to assign the sex-ratio etiology to the maturation p

SUBMITTER: Tao Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2062475 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature