Evidence for involvement of a transformer paralogue in sex determination of the wasp Leptopilina clavipes

E. Geuverink; K. Kraaijeveld; M. van Leussen; F. Chen; J. Pijpe; M. H.K. Linskens; L. W. Beukeboom; L. van de Zande

doi:10.1111/imb.12522

Evidence for involvement of a transformer paralogue in sex determination of the wasp Leptopilina clavipes

E. Geuverink^*
, K. Kraaijeveld
, M. van Leussen
, F. Chen
, J. Pijpe
, M. H.K. Linskens
, L. W. Beukeboom
, L. van de Zande

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Transformer (tra) is the central gear in many insect sex determination pathways and transduces a wide range of primary signals. Mediated by transformer-2 (tra2) it directs sexual development into the female or male mode. Duplications of tra have been detected in numerous Hymenoptera, but a function in sex determination has been confirmed only in Apis mellifera. We identified a tra2 orthologue (Lc-tra2), a tra orthologue (Lc-tra) and a tra paralogue (Lc-traB) in the genome of Leptopilina clavipes (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae). We compared the sequence and structural conservation of these genes between sexual (arrhenotokous) and asexual all-female producing (thelytokous) individuals. Lc-tra is sex-specifically spliced in adults consistent with its orthologous function. The male-specific regions of Lc-tra are conserved in both reproductive modes. The paralogue Lc-traB lacks the genomic region coding for male-specific exons and can only be translated into a full-length TRA-like peptide sequence. Furthermore, unlike LC-TRA, the LC-TRAB interstrain sequence variation is not differentiated into a sexual and an asexual haplotype. The LC-TRAB protein interacts with LC-TRA as well as LC-TRA2. This suggests that Lc-traB functions as a conserved element in sex determination of sexual and asexual individuals.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	780-795
Number of pages	16
Journal	Insect Molecular Biology
Volume	27
Issue number	6
Early online date	28 Jul 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/imb.12522
Publication status	Published - Dec 2018

Funding

We thank Rogier Houwerzijl and Peter Hes for assistance with wasp and fly culturing, Todd Schlenke for supplying the KBH strain, students from the minor Genomics at the University of Applied Sciences Leiden for preparing and sequencing the HiSeq libraries, Mieke Geuverink-Bloemen and Paul Geuverink for collecting the LS1 strain and Anna Rensink for collecting the CA1 strain. This research was funded by Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research grants no. 854.10.001 and no. 824.15.015 to L.W.B. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funders	Funder number
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	824.15.015, 854.10.001

Keywords

Hymenoptera
protein interactions
reproductive modes
transformer orthologue
transformer-2

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10.1111/imb.12522

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title = "Evidence for involvement of a transformer paralogue in sex determination of the wasp Leptopilina clavipes",

abstract = "Transformer (tra) is the central gear in many insect sex determination pathways and transduces a wide range of primary signals. Mediated by transformer-2 (tra2) it directs sexual development into the female or male mode. Duplications of tra have been detected in numerous Hymenoptera, but a function in sex determination has been confirmed only in Apis mellifera. We identified a tra2 orthologue (Lc-tra2), a tra orthologue (Lc-tra) and a tra paralogue (Lc-traB) in the genome of Leptopilina clavipes (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae). We compared the sequence and structural conservation of these genes between sexual (arrhenotokous) and asexual all-female producing (thelytokous) individuals. Lc-tra is sex-specifically spliced in adults consistent with its orthologous function. The male-specific regions of Lc-tra are conserved in both reproductive modes. The paralogue Lc-traB lacks the genomic region coding for male-specific exons and can only be translated into a full-length TRA-like peptide sequence. Furthermore, unlike LC-TRA, the LC-TRAB interstrain sequence variation is not differentiated into a sexual and an asexual haplotype. The LC-TRAB protein interacts with LC-TRA as well as LC-TRA2. This suggests that Lc-traB functions as a conserved element in sex determination of sexual and asexual individuals.",

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AU - Geuverink, E.

AU - Kraaijeveld, K.

AU - van Leussen, M.

AU - Chen, F.

AU - Pijpe, J.

AU - Linskens, M. H.K.

AU - Beukeboom, L. W.

AU - van de Zande, L.

PY - 2018/12

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N2 - Transformer (tra) is the central gear in many insect sex determination pathways and transduces a wide range of primary signals. Mediated by transformer-2 (tra2) it directs sexual development into the female or male mode. Duplications of tra have been detected in numerous Hymenoptera, but a function in sex determination has been confirmed only in Apis mellifera. We identified a tra2 orthologue (Lc-tra2), a tra orthologue (Lc-tra) and a tra paralogue (Lc-traB) in the genome of Leptopilina clavipes (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae). We compared the sequence and structural conservation of these genes between sexual (arrhenotokous) and asexual all-female producing (thelytokous) individuals. Lc-tra is sex-specifically spliced in adults consistent with its orthologous function. The male-specific regions of Lc-tra are conserved in both reproductive modes. The paralogue Lc-traB lacks the genomic region coding for male-specific exons and can only be translated into a full-length TRA-like peptide sequence. Furthermore, unlike LC-TRA, the LC-TRAB interstrain sequence variation is not differentiated into a sexual and an asexual haplotype. The LC-TRAB protein interacts with LC-TRA as well as LC-TRA2. This suggests that Lc-traB functions as a conserved element in sex determination of sexual and asexual individuals.

AB - Transformer (tra) is the central gear in many insect sex determination pathways and transduces a wide range of primary signals. Mediated by transformer-2 (tra2) it directs sexual development into the female or male mode. Duplications of tra have been detected in numerous Hymenoptera, but a function in sex determination has been confirmed only in Apis mellifera. We identified a tra2 orthologue (Lc-tra2), a tra orthologue (Lc-tra) and a tra paralogue (Lc-traB) in the genome of Leptopilina clavipes (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae). We compared the sequence and structural conservation of these genes between sexual (arrhenotokous) and asexual all-female producing (thelytokous) individuals. Lc-tra is sex-specifically spliced in adults consistent with its orthologous function. The male-specific regions of Lc-tra are conserved in both reproductive modes. The paralogue Lc-traB lacks the genomic region coding for male-specific exons and can only be translated into a full-length TRA-like peptide sequence. Furthermore, unlike LC-TRA, the LC-TRAB interstrain sequence variation is not differentiated into a sexual and an asexual haplotype. The LC-TRAB protein interacts with LC-TRA as well as LC-TRA2. This suggests that Lc-traB functions as a conserved element in sex determination of sexual and asexual individuals.

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KW - protein interactions

KW - reproductive modes

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Evidence for involvement of a transformer paralogue in sex determination of the wasp Leptopilina clavipes

Abstract

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Keywords

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