Evolution of the neural sex-determination system in insects: does fruitless homologue regulate neural sexual dimorphism in basal insects?

Abstract

In the brain of holometabolous insects such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the fruitless gene produces sex-specific gene products under the control of the sex-specific splicing cascade and contributes to the formation of the sexually dimorphic circuits. Similar sex-specific gene products of fruitless homologues have been identified in other holometabolous insects such as mosquitoes and a parasitic wasp, suggesting the fruitless-dependent neural sex-determination system is widely conserved amongst holometabolous insects. However, it remains obscure whether the fruitless-dependent neural sex-determination system is present in basal hemimetabolous insects. To address this issue, identification, characterization, and expression analyses of the fruitless homologue were conducted in the two-spotted cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus, as a model hemimetabolous insect. The Gryllus fruitless gene encodes multiple isoforms with a unique zinc finger domain, and does not encode a sex-specific gene product. The Gryllus Fruitless protein is broadly expressed in the neurones and glial cells in the brain, and there was no prominent sex-related difference in the expression levels of Gryllus fruitless isoforms. The results suggest that the Gryllus fruitless gene is not involved in the neural sex-determination in the cricket brain.