Science and Technology Production
Article
Authorship
Ledon-Rettig, C
;
ZATTARA, EDUARDO ENRIQUE
;
Moczek, A.P.
Date
2017
Publishing House and Editing Place
Nature Publishing Group
Magazine
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS,
vol. 8
Nature Publishing Group
Summary
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Sexual dimorphisms fuel significant intraspecific variation and evolutionary diversification. Yet the developmental-genetic mechanisms underlying sex-specific development remain poorly understood. Here, we focus on the conserved sex-determination gene doublesex (dsx) and the mechanisms by which it mediates sex-specific development in a horned beetle species by combining systemic dsx knockdown, high-throughput sequencing of diverse tissues, and a genome-wide analysis of Dsx binding sites. We fin...
Sexual dimorphisms fuel significant intraspecific variation and evolutionary diversification. Yet the developmental-genetic mechanisms underlying sex-specific development remain poorly understood. Here, we focus on the conserved sex-determination gene doublesex (dsx) and the mechanisms by which it mediates sex-specific development in a horned beetle species by combining systemic dsx knockdown, high-throughput sequencing of diverse tissues, and a genome-wide analysis of Dsx binding sites. We find that Dsx regulates sex-biased expression predominantly in males, that Dsx´s target repertoires are highly sex- and tissue-specific, and that Dsx can exercise its regulatory role via two distinct mechanisms: as a sex-specific modulator by regulating strictly sex-specific targets, or as a switch by regulating the same genes in males and females in opposite directions. More generally, our results suggest Dsx can rapidly acquire new target gene repertoires to accommodate evolutionarily novel traits, evidenced by the large and unique repertoire identified in head horns, a recent morphological innovation.
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Key Words
sex determination pathwaystranscription factor evolutiondoublesexsexual dimorphismnext-generation sequencing