Hymenopteran Sex Determination Gene Likely Originated on Ancestral Insect X Chromosome
Isaac Walker
Department of Biology
Faculty Supervisor: Scott Roy
Hymenoptera are a large clade of haplodiploid insects where sex is determined through heterozygosity at a complementary sex determination (CSD) locus. Recent studies point to this being a non-coding RNA called ANTSR in the ancestor of the order. However, the ancestral sex determination system for the super-order Holometabola is X/O chromosomal. Preliminarily, we show that the chromosome containing the ANTSR gene is homologous to this ancestral insect X chromosome. Additionally, a microRNA proximal to the CSD gene appears to be X-linked. The implications of these findings are being studied.