TY - JOUR
T1 - Characteristic and Functional Study of Intersex, a Gene Related to Female Fertility in Bemisia tabaci
AU - Liu, Yating
AU - Yang, Jinjian
AU - Huo, Zhijia
AU - Wang, Shaoli
AU - Wu, Qingjun
AU - Zhou, Xuguo
AU - Xie, Wen
AU - Zhang, Youjun
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2020 Liu, Yang, Huo, Wang, Wu, Zhou, Xie and Zhang.
PY - 2020/2/25
Y1 - 2020/2/25
N2 - The intersex (ix) gene acts in concert with doublesex (dsx) at the end of the sex determination hierarchy to control somatic sexual differentiation in Drosophila melanogaster. Here, we report the Drosophila ix homolog in Bemisia tabaci (Btix) with differential splicing events. Four isoforms were found in B. tabaci adults, including two sex-specific transcripts (BtixF and BtixM). Knockdown of Btix had no measurable effects on female morphological phenotypes but reduced the expression of the vitellogenin gene and resulted in the production of significantly fewer eggs, a lower eclosion rate, and a shorter body size of female progeny in comparison with control females. These results increase our understanding of the genes underlying sex determination in B. tabaci and reveal a potential target for RNA interference-based pest management.
AB - The intersex (ix) gene acts in concert with doublesex (dsx) at the end of the sex determination hierarchy to control somatic sexual differentiation in Drosophila melanogaster. Here, we report the Drosophila ix homolog in Bemisia tabaci (Btix) with differential splicing events. Four isoforms were found in B. tabaci adults, including two sex-specific transcripts (BtixF and BtixM). Knockdown of Btix had no measurable effects on female morphological phenotypes but reduced the expression of the vitellogenin gene and resulted in the production of significantly fewer eggs, a lower eclosion rate, and a shorter body size of female progeny in comparison with control females. These results increase our understanding of the genes underlying sex determination in B. tabaci and reveal a potential target for RNA interference-based pest management.
KW - Bemisia tabaci
KW - RNA interference
KW - intersex
KW - pest control
KW - sex determination
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U2 - 10.3389/fphys.2020.00055
DO - 10.3389/fphys.2020.00055
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85082006356
SN - 1664-042X
VL - 11
JO - Frontiers in Physiology
JF - Frontiers in Physiology
M1 - 55
ER -