Laboratory of Sericulture & Entomoresources, Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan.
EMBO Rep. 2013 Jun;14(6):561-7. doi: 10.1038/embor.2013.50. Epub 2013 Apr 23.
Male-specific exaggerated horns are an evolutionary novelty and have diverged rapidly via intrasexual selection. Here, we investigated the function of the conserved sex-determination gene doublesex (dsx) in the Japanese rhinoceros beetle (Trypoxylus dichotomus) using RNA interference (RNAi). Our results show that the sex-specific T. dichotomus dsx isoforms have an antagonistic function for head horn formation and only the male isoform has a role for thoracic horn formation. These results indicate that the novel sex-specific regulation of dsx during horn morphogenesis might have been the key evolutionary developmental event at the transition from sexually monomorphic to sexually dimorphic horns.
雄性特化的夸张角是一种进化 novelty,并通过 intra-sexual 选择快速进化。在这里,我们使用 RNA 干扰(RNAi)研究了日本独角仙(Trypoxylus dichotomus)中保守的性别决定基因 doublesex(dsx)的功能。我们的结果表明,性别特异的 T. dichotomus dsx 异构体对头角形成具有拮抗作用,只有雄性异构体对胸角形成具有作用。这些结果表明,在角形态发生过程中 dsx 的新型性别特异性调控可能是从性单态到性二态角过渡的关键进化发育事件。