The molecular regulartory mechanism that enables normal male development even if the feminizer gene is expressed in males

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K05626
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 39050:Insect science-related
• Research Institution: Shizuoka University
• Principal Investigator: Gotoh Hiroki 静岡大学, 理学部, 助教 (60737899)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 性決定 / 性的二型 / クワガタムシ / RNA干渉

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this project, we studied insect feminization gene transformer (tra). Generally, in insects, females express functional Tra proteins to induce female development via sex-specific alternative splicing. Males, on the other hand, express only nonfunctional Tra proteins. However, we found that in one species of stag beetle, the same functional tra likely to be expressed in both sexes. Therefore, we investigated to elucidate the mechanism by which normal male differentiation occurs while functional Tra is expressed in males. As a result, we confirmed that the expression pattern of the downstream gene dsx and the cofactor tra2 showed general expression patterns. From these results, the possibility was found that the regulation of the presence or absence of function in males and females is due to differences in post-transcription regulation such as translation processes.

Free Research Field

進化発生学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では昆虫の性決定の多様性の解明に繋がる。性決定メカニズムの解明は、発生生物学の重要なトピックであるばかりでなく、農業害虫の防除や制御の上でも重要な標的経路である。
昆虫の性決定経路の最上流因子は分類群ごとに多様である。一方で、本研究で着目した遺伝子である transformer を含む下流因子群は比較的保存性が高かった。しかしながら本研究では、クワガタムシ科のある種では下流因子群の transformer で、完全変態昆虫ではこれまで知られていない発現パターンを示すことを発見し、その仕組みを研究することで、性決定経路の知られざる多様性の1つを明らかにしたと言える。