Sex in flies: the splice of life

The discovery that the primary transcripts of many genes are processed to produce more than one kind of messenger RNA focuses attention on the control of RNA processing as a developmental regulatory mechanism. In the fruit-fly Drosophila melanogaster, differential splicing of a hierarchy of regulatory genes determines sex, and thus the molecular biology of sex determination in the fruit-fly may lead to insights into the mechanisms by which alternative splicing is regulated.

[1]  G. Dreyfuss,et al.  Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins: role in RNA splicing. , 1986, Science.

[2]  N. Perrimon,et al.  The ovo locus is required for sex-specific germ line maintenance in Drosophila. , 1987, Genes & development.

[3]  P. Argos,et al.  Cloning of the human cDNA for the U1 RNA‐associated 70K protein. , 1986, The EMBO journal.

[4]  H. Amrein,et al.  The sex-determining gene tra-2 of Drosophila encodes a putative RNA binding protein , 1988, Cell.

[5]  B. S. Baker,et al.  Drosophila doublesex gene controls somatic sexual differentiation by producing alternatively spliced mRNAs encoding related sex-specific polypeptides , 1989, Cell.

[6]  T. Cline.  Two closely linked mutations in Drosophila melanogaster that are lethal to opposite sexes and interact with daughterless. , 1978, Genetics.

[7]  B. S. Baker,et al.  Sex determination and dosage compensation in Drosophila melanogaster. , 1983, Annual review of genetics.

[8]  L. Bell,et al.  Sex-lethal, a Drosophila sex determination switch gene, exhibits sex-specific RNA splicing and sequence similarity to RNA binding proteins , 1988, Cell.

[9]  J. Lucchesi,et al.  Male-specific lethal mutations of Drosophila melanogaster. , 1980, Genetics.

[10]  T. Cline.  Maternal and zygotic sex-specific gene interactions in Drosophila melanogaster. , 1980, Genetics.

[11]  T. Cline.  The interaction between daughterless and sex-lethal in triploids: a lethal sex-transforming maternal effect linking sex determination and dosage compensation in Drosophila melanogaster. , 1983, Developmental biology.

[12]  J. Lucchesi,et al.  Control of X chromosome transcription by the maleless gene in Drosophila , 1980, Nature.

[13]  C. Bridges.  TRIPLOID INTERSEXES IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER. , 1921, Science.

[14]  B. S. Baker,et al.  Molecular genetic aspects of sex determination in Drosophila , 1987, BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology.

[15]  T. Cline.  Autoregulatory functioning of a Drosophila gene product that establish es and maintains the sexually determined state. , 1984, Genetics.

[16]  M. Mckeown,et al.  Regulation of sexual differentiation in D. melanogaster via alternative splicing of RNA from the transformer gene , 1987, Cell.

[17]  T. Cline,et al.  Molecular characterization of daughterless, a Drosophila sex determination gene with multiple roles in development. , 1988, Genes & development.

[18]  B. S. Baker,et al.  The sex determination locus transformer-2 of Drosophila encodes a polypeptide with similarity to RNA binding proteins , 1989, Cell.

[19]  B. S. Baker,et al.  Sex and the single cell. I. On the action of major loci affecting sex determination in Drosophila melanogaster. , 1980, Genetics.

[20]  R. Nöthiger,et al.  Genetics of sex determination in eukaryotes. , 1987, Results and problems in cell differentiation.

[21]  Ursula Mittwoch,et al.  The Origin and Evolution of Sex , 1987 .

[22]  T. Cline,et al.  The Drosophila sex determination gene daughterless has different functions in the germ line versus the soma , 1987, Cell.

[23]  G. Dreyfuss,et al.  Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein particles and the pathway of mRNA formation. , 1988, Trends in biochemical sciences.

[24]  N. Perrimon,et al.  Genetic evidence that the sans fille locus is involved in Drosophila sex determination. , 1988, Genetics.

[25]  P. Bingham,et al.  Developmental expression of a regulatory gene is programmed at the level of splicing. , 1987, The EMBO journal.

[26]  B. S. Baker,et al.  A molecular analysis of doublesex, a bifunctional gene that controls both male and female sexual differentiation in Drosophila melanogaster. , 1988, Genes & development.

[27]  P. Bingham,et al.  On/off regulation of gene expression at the level of splicing. , 1988, Trends in genetics : TIG.

[28]  M. Mckeown,et al.  Ectopic expression of the female transformer gene product leads to female differentiation of chromosomally male drosophila , 1988, Cell.

[29]  I. Irminger-Finger,et al.  The sex‐determining gene tra of Drosophila: molecular cloning and transformation studies. , 1986, The EMBO journal.

[30]  Y. Jan,et al.  daughterless, a Drosophila gene essential for both neurogenesis and sex determination, has sequence similarities to myc and the achaete-scute complex , 1988, Cell.

[31]  M. Steinmann‐Zwicky.  Sex determination in Drosophila: the X‐chromosomal gene liz is required for Sxl activity. , 1988, The EMBO journal.

[32]  Y. Jan,et al.  The maternal sex determination gene daughterless has zygotic activity necessary for the formation of peripheral neurons in Drosophila. , 1988, Genes & development.

[33]  T. Cline.  A sex-specific, temperature-sensitive maternal effect of the daughterless mutation of Drosophila melanogaster. , 1976, Genetics.

[34]  T. Cline.  Evidence that sisterless-a and sisterless-b are two of several discrete "numerator elements" of the X/A sex determination signal in Drosophila that switch Sxl between two alternative stable expression states. , 1988, Genetics.

[35]  B. S. Baker,et al.  The control of alternative splicing at genes regulating sexual differentiation in D. melanogaster , 1988, Cell.

[36]  T. Cline,et al.  Functional changes associated with structural alterations induced by mobilization of a P element inserted in the Sex-lethal gene of Drosophila. , 1987, Genetics.

[37]  Gergen Jp.  Dosage Compensation in Drosophila: Evidence That daughterless and Sex-lethal Control X Chromosome Activity at the Blastoderm Stage of Embryogenesis. , 1987 .

[38]  T. Cline,et al.  Sex-lethal, a link between sex determination and sexual differentiation in Drosophila melanogaster. , 1985, Cold Spring Harbor symposia on quantitative biology.

[39]  T. Cline,et al.  The Sex-lethal gene of drosophila: DNA alterations associated with sex-specific lethal mutations , 1985, Cell.

[40]  B. S. Baker,et al.  A molecular analysis of transformer, a gene in drosophila melanogaster that controls female sexual differentiation , 1987, Cell.

[41]  Sex-specific gene expression in somatic tissues of Drosophila melanogaster. , 1988, Trends in genetics : TIG.

[42]  C. Laird,et al.  Dosage compensation in Drosophila , 1986 .