ArticleGenetics2008
Sexual back talk with evolutionary implications: stimulation of the Drosophila sex-determination gene sex-lethal by its target transformer.
Article in Genetics, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neuronal protein Sex-lethal modulates tRNA synthesis via the polymerase III subunit Polr3E in male Drosophila neurons.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- The transformer gene controls sexual development in Drosophila suzukii.Insect science · 2026Article
- Sex determination geneeLife · 2021Article
- Article
- Gtsf1 is essential for proper female sex determination and transposon silencing in the silkworm, Bombyx mori.PLoS genetics · 2020Article
- Regulation of olfactory-based sex behaviors in the silkworm by genes in the sex-determination cascade.PLoS genetics · 2020Article
- Article
- Bombyx mori P-element Somatic Inhibitor (BmPSI) Is a Key Auxiliary Factor for Silkworm Male Sex Determination.PLoS genetics · 2017Article
- The autoregulatory loop: A common mechanism of regulation of key sex determining genes in insects.Journal of biosciences · 2016Review
- The Sex Determination Gene transformer Regulates Male-Female Differences in Drosophila Body Size.PLoS genetics · 2015Article
- Sex- and tissue-specific functions of Drosophila doublesex transcription factor target genes.Developmental cell · 2014Article
- Review
- Drosophila switch gene Sex-lethal can bypass its switch-gene target transformer to regulate aspects of female behavior.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2013Article
- Molecular evolution of Drosophila Sex-lethal and related sex determining genes.BMC evolutionary biology · 2012Article
- Sex determination in insects: a binary decision based on alternative splicing.Current opinion in genetics & development · 2011Review
- Function and evolution of sex determination mechanisms, genes and pathways in insects.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2011Review
- The transformer gene of Ceratitis capitata: a paradigm for a conserved epigenetic master regulator of sex determination in insects.Genetica · 2011Article
- Article
- About females and males: continuity and discontinuity in flies.Journal of genetics · 2010Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
We describe a surprising new regulatory relationship between two key genes of the Drosophila sex-determination gene hierarchy, Sex-lethal (Sxl) and transformer (tra). A positive autoregulatory feedback loop for Sxl was known to maintain somatic cell female identity by producing SXL-F protein to continually instruct the target gene transformer (tra) to make its feminizing product, TRA-F. We discovered the reciprocal regulatory effect by studying genetically sensitized females: TRA-F from either maternal or zygotic tra expression stimulates Sxl-positive autoregulation. We found female-specific tra mRNA in eggs as predicted by this tra maternal effect, but not predicted by the prevailing view that tra has no germline function. TRA-F stimulation of Sxl seems to be direct at some point, since Sxl harbors highly conserved predicted TRA-F binding sites. Nevertheless, TRA-F stimulation of Sxl autoregulation in the gonadal soma also appears to have a cell-nonautonomous aspect, unprecedented for somatic Sxl regulation. This tra-Sxl retrograde regulatory circuit has evolutionary implications. In some Diptera, tra occupies Sxl's position as the gene that epigenetically maintains female identity through direct positive feedback on pre-mRNA splicing. The tra-mediated Sxl feedback in Drosophila may be a vestige of regulatory redundancy that facilitated the evolutionary transition from tra to Sxl as the master sex switch.
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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.