Male sex in houseflies is determined by Mdmd, a paralog of the generic splice factor gene CWC22

Akash Sharma; Svenia D Heinze; Yanli Wu; Tea Kohlbrenner; Ian Morilla; Claudia Brunner; Ernst A Wimmer; Louis van de Zande; Mark D Robinson; Leo W Beukeboom; Daniel Bopp

doi:10.1126/science.aam5498

Male sex in houseflies is determined by Mdmd, a paralog of the generic splice factor gene CWC22

Science. 2017 May 12;356(6338):642-645. doi: 10.1126/science.aam5498.

Authors

Akash Sharma^{1

2}, Svenia D Heinze², Yanli Wu^{1

3}, Tea Kohlbrenner², Ian Morilla², Claudia Brunner², Ernst A Wimmer³, Louis van de Zande¹, Mark D Robinson^{2

4}, Leo W Beukeboom¹, Daniel Bopp⁵

Affiliations

¹ Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Post Office Box 11103, 9700 CC, Groningen, Netherlands.
² Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
³ Department of Developmental Biology, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, Göttingen Center of Molecular Biosciences, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany.
⁴ SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁵ Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland. [email protected].

PMID: 28495751
DOI: 10.1126/science.aam5498

Abstract

Across species, animals have diverse sex determination pathways, each consisting of a hierarchical cascade of genes and its associated regulatory mechanism. Houseflies have a distinctive polymorphic sex determination system in which a dominant male determiner, the M-factor, can reside on any of the chromosomes. We identified a gene, Musca domesticamale determiner (Mdmd), as the M-factor. Mdmd originated from a duplication of the spliceosomal factor gene CWC22 (nucampholin). Targeted Mdmd disruption results in complete sex reversal to fertile females because of a shift from male to female expression of the downstream genes transformer and doublesex The presence of Mdmd on different chromosomes indicates that Mdmd translocated to different genomic sites. Thus, an instructive signal in sex determination can arise by duplication and neofunctionalization of an essential splicing regulator.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Evolution, Molecular
Female
Gene Duplication
Gene Targeting
Houseflies / genetics*
Houseflies / growth & development
Houseflies / physiology*
Insect Proteins / genetics*
Male
RNA Splicing Factors / genetics*
Sex Determination Processes

Substances

Insect Proteins
RNA Splicing Factors