Developmental Analysis of Two Sex-Determining Genes, M and F, in the Housefly, Musca Domestica

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In the housefly, Musca domestica, a single dominant factor, M, determines maleness. Animals hemior heterozygous for M are males, whereas those without M develop as females. In certain strains, however, both sexes are homozygous for M, and an epistatic dominant factor, F(D), dictates female development. The requirement for these factors was analyzed by producing, with mitotic recombination, mosaic animals consisting of genetically male and female cells. Removal of F(D) from an M/M;F(D)/+ cell at any time of larval development, even in the last larval instar, resulted in sex-reversal, i.e., in the development of a male clone in an otherwise female fly. In contrast, when M was removed from M/+ cells, the resulting clones remained male despite their female genotype, even when the removal of M happened at embryonic stages. The occurrence of spontaneous gynandromorphs, however, shows that the loss of M in individual nuclei prior to blastoderm formation causes the affected cells to adopt the female pathway. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that M is the primary sex-determining signal which sets the state of activity of the key gene F at around the blastoderm stage. Parallels and differences to the sex-determining system of Drosophila are discussed.

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