Male-specific fruitless isoforms target neurodevelopmental genes to specify a sexually dimorphic nervous system.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In Drosophila, male courtship behavior is regulated in large part by the gene fruitless (fru). fru encodes a set of putative transcription factors that promote male sexual behavior by controlling the development of sexually dimorphic neuronal circuitry. Little is known about how Fru proteins function at the level of transcriptional regulation or the role that isoform diversity plays in the formation of a male-specific nervous system.

Results

To characterize the roles of sex-specific Fru isoforms in specifying male behavior, we generated novel isoform-specific mutants and used a genomic approach to identify direct Fru isoform targets during development. We demonstrate that all Fru isoforms directly target genes involved in the development of the nervous system, wit

SUBMITTER: Neville MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3969260 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature