Genomic imprinting and maternal effect genes in haplodiploid sex determination

Sexual Development : Genetics, Molecular Biology, Evolution, Endocrinology, Embryology, and Pathology of Sex Determination and Differentiation
Louis van de Zande, E C Verhulst

Abstract

The research into the Drosophila melanogaster sex-determining system has been at the basis of all further research on insect sex determination. This further research has made it clear that, for most insect species, the presence of sufficient functional Transformer (TRA) protein in the early embryonic stage is essential for female sexual development. In Hymenoptera, functional analysis of sex determination by knockdown studies of sex-determining genes has only been performed for 2 species. The first is the social insect species Apis mellifera, the honeybee, which has single-locus complementary sex determination (CSD). The other species is the parasitoid Nasonia vitripennis, the jewel wasp. Nasonia has a non-CSD sex-determining system, described as the maternal effect genomic imprinting sex determination system (MEGISD). Here, we describe the arguments that eventually led to the formulation of MEGISD and the experimental data that supported and refined this model. We evaluate the possibility that DNA methylation lies at the basis of MEGISD and briefly address the role of genomic imprinting in non-CSD sex determination in other Hymenoptera.

Citations

Jun 24, 2015·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Xu WangAndrew G Clark
Jun 5, 2016·Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology·Gajula GopinathJavaregowda Nagaraju
Oct 10, 2019·Genome Biology and Evolution·Cyril Matthey-DoretTanja Schwander
Jul 28, 2020·Insect Molecular Biology·D Chaverra-RodriguezO S Akbari

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