Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Oct 20;11(1):549.
doi: 10.1186/s13071-018-3090-3.

The sequence of a male-specific genome region containing the sex determination switch in Aedes aegypti

Joe Turner  1   2 , Ritesh Krishna  1   3 , Arjen E Van't Hof  1   4 , Elizabeth R Sutton  2   5   6 , Kelly Matzen  2 , Alistair C Darby  7
Affiliations

The sequence of a male-specific genome region containing the sex determination switch in Aedes aegypti

Joe Turner et al. Parasit Vectors. .

Abstract

Background: Aedes aegypti is the principal vector of several important arboviruses. Among the methods of vector control to limit transmission of disease are genetic strategies that involve the release of sterile or genetically modified non-biting males, which has generated interest in manipulating mosquito sex ratios. Sex determination in Ae. aegypti is controlled by a non-recombining Y chromosome-like region called the M locus, yet characterisation of this locus has been thwarted by the repetitive nature of the genome. In 2015, an M locus gene named Nix was identified that displays the qualities of a sex determination switch.

Results: With the use of a whole-genome bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library, we amplified and sequenced a ~200 kb region containing the male-determining gene Nix. In this study, we show that Nix is comprised of two exons separated by a 99 kb intron primarily composed of repetitive DNA, especially transposable elements.

Conclusions: Nix, an unusually large and highly repetitive gene, exhibits features in common with Y chromosome genes in other organisms. We speculate that the lack of recombination at the M locus has allowed the expansion of repeats in a manner characteristic of a sex-limited chromosome, in accordance with proposed models of sex chromosome evolution in insects.

Keywords: BAC; Chromosome evolution; Genomics; M locus; Nix; PacBio; Sex determination.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

JT is a sponsored student (through the BBSRC Industrial CASE studentship) and KM is an employee of Oxitec Ltd., respectively, which therefore provided stipend or salary and other support for the research program.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Structure and gene expression of the ~207 kb genomic region containing the Nix gene. Nix is shown as two black boxes representing the exons, joined by a black line representing the intron. The top track of a shows the alignment of the sequence to the corresponding region of the reverse complement of the AaegL5 reference genome assembly, with colours representing percentage similarity (red: 100%; orange: > 90%; green: > 80%). Colours on the central track of a represent the classes of repetitive elements (orange: DNA transposons; cyan: Gypsy LTRs; green: Ty1/Copia LTRs). Blue histograms represent the coverage of RNA-Seq reads from male samples on the y axis; red histograms represent the coverage from female samples. b and c show enlargements of the first and second exons of Nix in the dotted regions in a, respectively
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

  • New self-sexing Aedes aegypti strain eliminates barriers to scalable and sustainable vector control for governments and communities in dengue-prone environments.
    Spinner SAM, Barnes ZH, Puinean AM, Gray P, Dafa'alla T, Phillips CE, Nascimento de Souza C, Frazon TF, Ercit K, Collado A, Naish N, Sulston E, Ll Phillips GC, Greene KK, Poletto M, Sperry BD, Warner SA, Rose NR, Frandsen GK, Verza NC, Gorman KJ, Matzen KJ. Spinner SAM, et al. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022 Oct 25;10:975786. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.975786. eCollection 2022. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022. PMID: 36394032 Free PMC article.
  • Improved reference genome of Aedes aegypti informs arbovirus vector control.
    Matthews BJ, Dudchenko O, Kingan SB, Koren S, Antoshechkin I, Crawford JE, Glassford WJ, Herre M, Redmond SN, Rose NH, Weedall GD, Wu Y, Batra SS, Brito-Sierra CA, Buckingham SD, Campbell CL, Chan S, Cox E, Evans BR, Fansiri T, Filipović I, Fontaine A, Gloria-Soria A, Hall R, Joardar VS, Jones AK, Kay RGG, Kodali VK, Lee J, Lycett GJ, Mitchell SN, Muehling J, Murphy MR, Omer AD, Partridge FA, Peluso P, Aiden AP, Ramasamy V, Rašić G, Roy S, Saavedra-Rodriguez K, Sharan S, Sharma A, Smith ML, Turner J, Weakley AM, Zhao Z, Akbari OS, Black WC 4th, Cao H, Darby AC, Hill CA, Johnston JS, Murphy TD, Raikhel AS, Sattelle DB, Sharakhov IV, White BJ, Zhao L, Aiden EL, Mann RS, Lambrechts L, Powell JR, Sharakhova MV, Tu Z, Robertson HM, McBride CS, Hastie AR, Korlach J, Neafsey DE, Phillippy AM, Vosshall LB. Matthews BJ, et al. Nature. 2018 Nov;563(7732):501-507. doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0692-z. Epub 2018 Nov 14. Nature. 2018. PMID: 30429615 Free PMC article.

References

    1. Laughlin CA, Morens DM, Cassetti MC, Costero-Saint Denis A, San Martin JL, Whitehead SS, et al. Dengue research opportunities in the Americas. J Infect Dis. 2012;206:1121–1127. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jis351. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bhatt S, Gething PW, Brady OJ, Messina JP, Farlow AW, Moyes CL, et al. The global distribution and burden of dengue. Nature. 2013;496:504–507. doi: 10.1038/nature12060. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Musso D, Cao-Lormeau VM, Gubler DJ. Zika virus: following the path of dengue and chikungunya? Lancet. 2015;386:243–244. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)61273-9. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fauci Anthony S., Morens David M. Zika Virus in the Americas — Yet Another Arbovirus Threat. New England Journal of Medicine. 2016;374(7):601–604. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1600297. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alphey L. Genetic control of mosquitoes. Annu Rev Entomol. 2014;59:205–224. doi: 10.1146/annurev-ento-011613-162002. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources