ArticleCell2008
The regulation and evolution of a genetic switch controlling sexually dimorphic traits in Drosophila.
Article in Cell, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 185 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
185 citing papers in PubMed, 322 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mechanisms of Phenotypic Evolution from Molecules to Organisms: Integrating Evolutionary Biochemistry and Evolutionary Developmental Biology.Annual review of ecology, evolution, and systematics · 2026Article
- The influence of Polycomb and Trithorax group function on the sexually dimorphic abdomen pigmentation of Drosophila melanogaster.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Article
- Rewiring of two conserved signalling hubs into one axis underlies convergent female-specific wing regression in insects.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Decoding cis-regulatory elements in the germline of the human malaria vector Anopheles gambiae.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Trait-specific chromatin architectures channel pleiotropic genes toward sexually dimorphic development in horned beetles.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Organization and evolution of sex-biased gene expression inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Sex-Specific doublesex Regulation Targeting the Color-Patterning Gene h Underlies the Evolution of Wing Sexual Dimorphism in the Harlequin Ladybug Harmonia axyridis.Evolution & development · 2026Article
- Evolution of dominance in a Mendelian trait is linked to the evolution of environmental plasticity.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2026Article
- Post-transcriptional suppression of the pioneer factor Zelda protects the adult Drosophila testis from activation of the ovary program.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- High-resolution single-cell analyses reveal evolutionary constraints and evolvability of sexual circuits inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- The transcriptomics of phenotypic nonspecificity in Drosophila melanogaster.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Article
- Using a female-specific isoform ofiScience · 2025Article
- Redundant and Singular Regulatory Elements Underlie the Rapidly Evolving Pigmentation of Drosophila.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- A Notch signal required for a morphological novelty inScience advances · 2025Article
- Article
- Alternative splicing of squid is associated with sex-ratio allocation in the wasp Copidosomopsis nacoleiae.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Doublesex and GATAβ4 synergistically regulate the sex-dimorphic expression of storage protein 1 in Bombyx mori.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- Single-nucleus transcriptomics of wing sexual dimorphism and scale cell specialization in sulphur butterflies.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Understanding the genetics of sex determination in insects and its relevance to genetic pest management.Insect molecular biology · 2025Review
- Evolution of dominance in a Mendelian trait is linked to the evolution of environmental plasticity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
125 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Sexually dimorphic traits play key roles in animal evolution and behavior. Little is known, however, about the mechanisms governing their development and evolution. One recently evolved dimorphic trait is the male-specific abdominal pigmentation of Drosophila melanogaster, which is repressed in females by the Bric-à-brac (Bab) proteins. To understand the regulation and origin of this trait, we have identified and traced the evolution of the genetic switch controlling dimorphic bab expression. We show that the HOX protein Abdominal-B (ABD-B) and the sex-specific isoforms of Doublesex (DSX) directly regulate a bab cis-regulatory element (CRE). In females, ABD-B and DSX(F) activate bab expression whereas in males DSX(M) directly represses bab, which allows for pigmentation. A new domain of dimorphic bab expression evolved through multiple fine-scale changes within this CRE, whose ancestral role was to regulate other dimorphic features. These findings reveal how new dimorphic characters can emerge from genetic networks regulating pre-existing dimorphic traits.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.