Sex-specific splicing of the honeybee doublesex gene reveals 300 million years of evolution at the bottom of the insect sex-determination pathway.

ABSTRACT: Sex-determination mechanisms vary greatly among taxa. It has been proposed that genetic sex-determination pathways evolve in reverse order from the final step in the pathway to the first step. Consistent with this hypothesis, doublesex (dsx), the most downstream gene in the Drosophila sex-determination cascade that determines most sexual phenotypes also determines sex in other dipterans and the silk moth, while the upstream genes vary among these species. However, it is unknown when dsx was recruited to the sex-determination pathway during insect evolution. Furthermore, sex-specific splicing of dsx, by which dsx determines sex, is different in pattern and mechanism between the moth and the fly, raising an interesting question of how these insects have kept the executor of sex determination

SUBMITTER: Cho S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2147941 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature