Dübendorfer Bopp
Fakultäten » Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät » Molekulare Biologie, Institut für » Development » Dr. Daniel Bopp » Dübendorfer Bopp
Completed research project
| Title / Titel | Evolution of the genetic cascade that regulates sex determination in insects | ||||||
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| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||||||
| Summary / Zusammenfassung | Many developmental processes in higher organisms are regulated by complex genetic regulatory cascades. With the aim of understanding how such hierarchically organised control systems evolve, we are studying the sex-determining mechanism of the housefly, Musca domestica, which we compare to the known mechanism in the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster. The observed parallels and differences between the two species provide information on the evolution of sex-determining mechanisms in insects, and show how "old" genes may be recruited for "new" functions in different pathways. Elucidating the sex-determining cascades should eventually reveal a principle of general significance, also applicable to hierarchies controlling other developmental pathways. Some years of successful genetical and developmental analyses established the existence of a regulatory cascade for sex determination in the housefly. Recently, we were able to isolate the housefly homologues of some of the key components known from the sex-determining cascade of Drospohila. It appears that only the bottom-most genes of the Drosophila cascade have a conserved sex-determining function. These must therefore be considered the most ancient genes of the cascade. The top-most elements, however, have functionally diverted. They may have been recruited later to act as upstream regulators. These findings support the hypothesis by Wilkins (BioEssays 17, 71-77, 1995) that developmental pathways evolve bottom-up. |
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| Publications / Publikationen | Meise, M., Hilfiker-Kleiner, D., Brunner, C., Dübendorfer, A., Nöthiger, R.and Bopp, D. (1998) Sex-lethal, the master sex-determining gene in Drosophila, is not sex-specifically regulated in Musca domestica. Development 125, 1487-1494.Dübendorfer, A. and Hediger, M. (1998) The female-determining gene F of the housefly, Musca domestica, acts maternally to regulate its own zygotic activity. Genetics 150, 221-226.Hilfiker-Kleiner, D., Dübendorfer, A., Hilfiker, A. and Nöthiger, R. (1994) Genetic control of sex deter-mination in the germ line and soma of the housefly, Musca domestica. Development 120, 2531-2538. | ||||||
| Keywords / Suchbegriffe | sex determination, Musca domestica, Drosophila melanogaster | ||||||
| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
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| Other links to external web pages | http://www.imls.uzh.ch/research/Bopp.html | ||||||
| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
Universität Zürich (position pursuing an academic career), SNF (Personen- und Projektförderung), Foundation, Private Sector (e.g. Industry) |
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| In collaboration with / In Zusammenarbeit mit |
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| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Oct 1999 to Sep 2002 |