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MOLECULAR AND GENOMIC STUDIES OF
SEX DETERMINATION IN DROSOPHILA
by
Laura Elizabeth Sanders
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(MOLECULAR BIOLOGY)
December, 2008
Copyright 2008 Laura Elizabeth Sanders
Object Description
| Title | Molecular and genomic studies of sex determination in Drosophila |
| Author | Sanders, Laura Elizabeth |
| Author email | lesander@usc.edu; laura.elizabeth.sanders@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Molecular Biology |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-07-24 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2008-10-23 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Arbeitman, Michelle Nina |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Aparicio, Oscar Martin Tower, John Reisler, Hanna |
| Abstract | In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, males perform an innate and stereotyped courtship ritual to successfully mate with females. Male courtship behavior and the development of sex-specific morphologies are controlled by an alternative pre-mRNA splicing cascade called the sex determination hierarchy, which ultimately results in the production of sex-specific transcription factors encoded by doublesex (dsx) and fruitless (fru). DSX regulates most of the morphological differences between males and females. The male-specific isoform of FRU (FRUM) functions in the central nervous system (CNS) and is necessary for most aspects of male courtship behavior. Although the regulatory interactions within the sex determination hierarchy are well characterized, the activity and targets of DSX and FRUM, the terminal effectors of sex determination, remain poorly understood. To explore how the genome is sex-specifically deployed, an analysis of the transcriptional regulation of sex-specific development during metamorphosis, the period in which the fly transitions from a larva to an adult, was performed. Genes were identified that likely function at distinct times during metamorphosis to regulate somatic sex-specific development, as well as genes that function in germline development. To identify genes that are downstream of the sex determination hierarchy, transcriptional profiles of mutants for sex determination genes were analyzed at mid-metamorphosis, and downstream targets of FRUM and DSX were identified. The set of genes regulated by fru included a preponderance of genes that are known to be regulated by the steroid hormone ecdysone. This led to functional characterization of the Ecdysone Receptor (EcR) specifically in the fru neural network. The data presented here demonstrate that one particular isoform of EcR, EcRA, is required in the fru neural circuit for appropriate male courtship behavior.; To examine the role of DSX in the CNS, its sexually dimorphic expression pattern was characterized across development. It is shown here that DSX specifies a sex-specific neural circuit in an isoform-specific manner through distinct mechanisms in different regions of the CNS. In addition to describing the transcriptional changes underlying sex-specific development during metamorphosis, the data presented here detail how DSX and FRU may function to pattern sex-specific neural circuits in the CNS. |
| Keyword | sex determination; neural circuits; development; Drosophila melanogaster; microarray |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1691 |
| Rights | Sanders, Laura Elizabeth |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/ |
| Filename | etd-Sanders-2342 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume40/etd-Sanders-2342.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Full text | MOLECULAR AND GENOMIC STUDIES OF SEX DETERMINATION IN DROSOPHILA by Laura Elizabeth Sanders A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (MOLECULAR BIOLOGY) December, 2008 Copyright 2008 Laura Elizabeth Sanders |
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