Tracing back the nascence of a new sex-determination pathway to the ancestor of bees and ants.

ABSTRACT: In several Hymenoptera, sexual fate is determined by the allelic composition at the complementary sex-determiner locus, a sex-determination mechanism that can strongly affect population dynamics. To date, the molecular identification of complementary sex determiner has only been achieved in the honeybee, where the complementary sex-determiner gene was reported to have arisen from duplication of the feminizer gene. Strikingly, the complementary sex-determiner gene was also proposed to be unique to the honeybee lineage. Here we identify feminizer and complementary sex-determiner orthologues in bumble bees and ants. We further demonstrate that the duplication of feminizer that produced complementary sex determiner occurred before the divergence of Aculeata species (~120 Myr ago). Finally, we

SUBMITTER: Schmieder S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3621418 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature