A comparative analysis of highly conserved sex-determining genes between Apis mellifera and Drosophila melanogaster
Genet. mol. res. (Online)
;
5(1): 154-168, Mar. 31, 2006. ilus, tab
Article
in English
| LILACS
| ID: lil-449136
ABSTRACT
A comparison of the most conserved sex-determining genes between the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and the honey bee, Apis mellifera, was performed with bioinformatics tools developed for computational molecular biology. An initial set of protein sequences already described in the fruit fly as participants of the sex-determining cascade was retrieved from the Gene Ontology database (http://www.geneontology.org/) and aligned against a database of protein sequences predicted from the honey bee genome. The doublesex (dsx) gene is considered one of the most conserved sex-determining genes among metazoans, and a male-specific partial cDNA of putative A. mellifera dsx gene (Amdsx) was identified experimentally. The theoretical predictions were developed in the context of sequence similarity. Experimental evidence indicates that dsx is present in embryos and larvae, and that it encodes a transcription factor widely conserved in metazoans, containing a DM DNA-binding domain implicated in the regulation of the expression of genes involved in sexual phenotype formation.
Full text:
Available
Index:
LILACS (Americas)
Main subject:
Bees
/
Genes, Insect
/
Conserved Sequence
/
Computational Biology
/
Sex Determination Processes
/
Drosophila melanogaster
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Limits:
Animals
Language:
English
Journal:
Genet. mol. res. (Online)
Journal subject:
Molecular Biology
/
Genetics
Year:
2006
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Brazil
Institution/Affiliation country:
Universidade de São Paulo/BR
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