Nix alone is sufficient to convert female Aedes aegypti into fertile males and myo-sex is needed for male flight
Nix alone is sufficient to convert female Aedes aegypti into fertile males and myo-sex is needed for male flight
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.2001132117
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发表时间：
2020-07-28
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Tu, Zhijian
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Aryan, Azadeh;Anderson, Michelle A. E.;Tu, Zhijian
一个显性雄性决定位点（M-位点）确定了黄热病蚊子埃及伊蚊的雄性（M/ M）。M位点的基因Nix被证明是雄性决定因子（M因子），因为Nix的体细胞敲除导致雄性雌性化（M/ M），而Nix的短暂表达导致雌性部分雄性化（M/ M），具有雄性生殖器官，但保留了雌性触角。目前尚不清楚在1.3 mb的m基因座中是否有其他29个基因也是完全性别转换所必需的。在这里，我们报道了在自身启动子控制下表达Nix的多个转基因系的产生。对这些品系的遗传和分子分析提供了以前的瞬态实验无法获得的见解。我们发现，在没有m位点的情况下，仅Nix转基因就足以将雌性转化为具有所有雄性特有的两性二态特征和雄性样基因表达的雄性。转换为m/m的雄性是不会飞的，无法进行交配所需的婚礼飞行。然而，当被冷麻醉的野生型雌性动物出现时，它们能够产生性别转换的后代。我们发现myo-sex，一个同样位于m位点的肌球蛋白重链基因，是雄性飞行所必需的，因为敲除myo-sex会使野生型雄性无法飞行。我们还表明，nix介导的雌性向雄性的转化是100%渗透的，并且在许多代中都是稳定的。因此，Nix具有开发蚊虫控制策略的巨大潜力，可以通过雌蚊到雄蚊的性别转换来减少媒介种群，或者帮助开发一种只需要释放不咬人的雄蚊的不育昆虫技术。
A dominant male-determining locus (M-locus) establishes the male sex (M/m) in the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. Nix, a gene in the M-locus, was shown to be a male-determining factor (M factor) as somatic knockout of Nix led to feminized males (M/m) while transient expression of Nix resulted in partially masculin-ized females (m/m), with male reproductive organs but retained female antennae. It was not clear whether any of the other 29 genes in the 1.3-Mb M-locus are also needed for complete sex -conversion. Here, we report the generation of multiple transgenic lines that express Nix under the control of its own promoter. Ge-netic and molecular analyses of these lines provided insights un-attainable from previous transient experiments. We show that the Nix transgene alone, in the absence of the M-locus, was sufficient to convert females into males with all male-specific sexually dimorphic features and male-like gene expression. The converted m/m males are flightless, unable to perform the nuptial flight required for mat-ing. However, they were able to father sex-converted progeny when presented with cold-anesthetized wild-type females. We show that myo-sex, a myosin heavy-chain gene also in the M-locus, was re-quired for male flight as knockout of myo-sex rendered wild-type males flightless. We also show that Nix-mediated female-to-male conversion was 100% penetrant and stable over many genera-tions. Therefore, Nix has great potential for developing mosquito control strategies to reduce vector populations by female-to-male sex conversion, or to aid in a sterile insect technique that requires releasing only non-biting males.