TY  - JOUR
TI  - <i>Ceratitis capitata transformer-2</i> gene is required to establish and maintain the autoregulation of <i>Cctra</i>, the master gene for female sex determination 
AU  - Salvemini, Marco
AU  - Robertson, Mark
AU  - Aronson, Benjamin
AU  - Atkinson, Peter
AU  - Polito, LinoC.
AU  - Saccone, Giuseppe
T2  - The International Journal of Developmental Biology
AB  - In Drosophila melanogaster, transformer-2 (TRA-2) which is a non-sex-specific auxiliary splicing factor, is required to promote female sexual differentiation by interaction with the female-specific TRA. The two proteins positively regulate the splicing of both doublesex (dsx) and fruitless (fru) pre-mRNAs, which in turn regulate phenotypic and behavioural sexual dimorphism. In the Mediterranean fruitfly Ceratitis capitata, the female-specific CcTRA is similarly required not only for Ccdsx splicing, but also to exert a novel autoregulatory function that consists of promoting female-specific splicing of Cctra pre-mRNA. This study reports the isolation and functional analysis of the C. capitata homologue of the Drosophila transformer-2 gene (Cctra-2). Transient RNAi against Cctra-2 during embryonic development causes the full sex reversal of XX flies in adult fertile pseudo-males, as well as changes in the splicing pattern of Cctra, Ccdsx and Ccfruitless (Ccfru). We propose that: 1) Cctra-2, as in Drosophila, is necessary for promoting Ccdsx and putative Ccfru pre-mRNA female-specific splicing and that 2) unlike in Drosophila, Cctra-2 appears to be necessary for establishing female sex determination in early XX embryos and for maintaining the positive feedback regulation of Cctra during development.
PY  - 2009
DO  - 10.1387/ijdb.082681ms
VL  - 53
IS  - 1
SP  - 109
EP  - 120
J2  - Int. J. Dev. Biol.
LA  - en
SN  - 0214-6282
SN  - 1696-3547
UR  - https://ijdb.ehu.eus/article/082681ms
Y2  - 2024/11/05/15:25:02
ER  -