A DBHS family member regulates male determination in the filariasis vector Armigeres subalbatus.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37085529.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-37983-y and PMC identifier 10121658.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The initial signals governing sex determination vary widely among insects. Here we show that Armigeres subalbatus M factor (AsuMf), a male-specific duplication of an autosomal gene of the Drosophila behaviour/human splicing (DBHS) gene family, is the potential primary signal for sex determination in the human filariasis vector mosquito, Ar. subalbatus. Our results show that AsuMf satisfies two fundamental requirements of an M factor: male-specific expression and early embryonic expression. Ablations of AsuMf result in a shift from male- to female-specific splicing of doublesex and fruitless, leading to feminization of males both in morphology and general transcription profile. These data support the conclusion that AsuMf is essential for male development in Ar. subalbatus and reveal a male-determining factor that is derived from duplication and subsequent neofunctionalization of a member of the conserved DBHS family.
Medical subject headings
- Culicidae
- Filariasis