THE EFFECT OF TRANSFORMER, DOUBLESEX AND INTERSEX MUTATIONS ON THE SEXUAL BEHAVIOR OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

[摘要] We have identified the effects of genes that regulate sex determination on female-specific tissues in the abdomen that produce sex pheromones and parts of the central nervous system that function when a male performs courtship. To do this, we monitored the sexual behaviors of flies with mutations in the transformer ( tra ), doublesex ( dsx ) and intersex ( ix ) genes. Except for tra , which transforms diplo- X flies so that they look and function like normal males, these mutations do not have the same effect on pheromone-producing tissues and the central nervous system as they do on the appearance of the fly. The dsx and ix mutations, which make diplo- X -flies look like intersexes, do not transform the flies so that they can perform courtship, suggesting that these genes do not regulate the development of sex-specific parts of the central nervous system. Conversely, the ix mutation, which has no effect on the appearance of haplo- X flies, makes the flies sexually attractive and impairs their ability to perform courtship, which implies that the ix gene is active in internal tissues of males.

[学科分类] 医学（综合）