Functional conservation of the fruitless male sex-determination gene across 250 Myr of insect evolution
Functional conservation of the fruitless male sex-determination gene across 250 Myr of insect evolution
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DOI：
10.1093/molbev/msj070
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发表时间：
2006-03-01
影响因子：
10.7
通讯作者：
Goodwin, SF
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gailey, DA;Billeter, JC;Goodwin, SF
果蝇雄性的性行为是由无果基因（fru）调控的，无果基因是一种性别决定基因，它指定BTB-Zn指蛋白的合成，可能是雄性特异性的转录调节因子。神经系统中fru的表达决定了雄性的性行为和劳伦斯肌（MOL），这是一种在雄性中发育而在雌性中没有的腹肌。我们已经从疟蚊冈比亚按蚊中分离出该基因的同源物，并显示出该基因的保守的基因组结构。我们证明了雄性特异性蚊子果蛋白亚型是通过性别特异性激活和选择性外显子剪接的保守机制产生的。雄蚊FRUMC异构体在果蝇中的异位表达揭示了蚊子fru的雄性决定功能：这导致了fruu突变雄性和fru（+）雌性的MOL发育，否则没有MOL。同时，我们提供了证据，证明雄性蚊子的第五腹部段肌肉分化的独特特征与果蝇的MOL非常相似。考虑到果蝇和按蚊之间250 Myr的进化差异背景下的这些保守特征，我们假设fru是双翅目昆虫中雄性性行为的原型基因。
Male sexual behavior in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is regulated by fruitless (fru), a sex-determination gene specifying the synthesis of BTB-Zn finger proteins that likely function as male-specific transcriptional regulators. Expression of fru in the nervous system specifies male sexual behavior and the muscle of Lawrence (MOL), ail abdominal muscle that develops in males but not in females. We have isolated the fru ortholog from the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae and show the gene's conserved genomic structure. We demonstrate that male-specific mosquito fru protein isoforms arise by conserved mechanisms of sex-specifically activated and alternative exon splicing. A male-determining function of mosquito fru is revealed by ectopic expression of the male mosquito isoform FRUMC in fruit flies: this results in MOL development in both fru-mutant males and fru(+) females who otherwise develop no MOL. In parallel, we provide evidence of a unique feature of muscle differentiation within the fifth abdominal segment of male mosquitoes that strongly resembles the fruit fly MOL. Given these conserved features within the context of 250 Myr of evolutionary divergence between Drosophila and Anopheles, we hypothesize that fru is the prototypic gene of male sexual behavior among dipteran insects.