HUSCAP logo Hokkaido Univ. logo

Hokkaido University Collection of Scholarly and Academic Papers >
Graduate School of Environmental Science / Faculty of Environmental Earth Science >
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles, etc >

Sexually Dimorphic Body Color Is Regulated by Sex-Specific Expression of Yellow Gene in Ponerine Ant, Diacamma Sp.

This item is licensed under:Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Files in This Item:
journal.pone.0092875.pdf4.33 MBPDFView/Open
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:http://hdl.handle.net/2115/55784

Title: Sexually Dimorphic Body Color Is Regulated by Sex-Specific Expression of Yellow Gene in Ponerine Ant, Diacamma Sp.
Authors: Miyazaki, Satoshi Browse this author
Okada, Yasukazu Browse this author
Miyakawa, Hitoshi Browse this author
Tokuda, Gaku Browse this author →KAKEN DB
Cornette, Richard Browse this author
Koshikawa, Shigeyuki Browse this author
Maekawa, Kiyoto Browse this author →KAKEN DB
Miura, Toru Browse this author →KAKEN DB
Issue Date: 25-Mar-2014
Publisher: PLOS
Journal Title: PLOS ONE
Volume: 9
Issue: 3
Start Page: e92875
Publisher DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092875
Abstract: Most hymenopteran species exhibit conspicuous sexual dimorphism due to ecological differences between the sexes. As hymenopteran genomes, under the haplodiploid genetic system, exhibit quantitative differences between sexes while remaining qualitatively identical, sexual phenotypes are assumed to be expressed through sex-specific gene usage. In the present study, the molecular basis for expression of sexual dimorphism in a queenless ant, Diacamma sp., which exhibits a distinct color dimorphism, was examined. Worker females of the species appear bluish-black, while winged males exhibit a yellowish-brown body color. Initially, observations of the pigmentation processes during pupal development revealed that black pigmentation was present in female pupae but not in males, suggesting that sex-specific melanin synthesis was responsible for the observed color dimorphism. Therefore, five orthologs of the genes involved in the insect melanin synthesis (yellow, ebony, tan, pale and dopa decarboxylase) were subcloned and their spatiotemporal expression patterns were examined using real-time quantitative RT-PCR. Of the genes examined, yellow, which plays a role in black melanin synthesis in insects, was expressed at higher levels in females than in males throughout the entire body during the pupal stage. RNA interference of yellow was then carried out in order to determine the gene function, and produced females with a more yellowish, brighter body color similar to that of males. It was concluded that transcriptional regulation of yellow was responsible for the sexual color dimorphism observed in this species.
Rights: © 2014 Miyazaki et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Type: article
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2115/55784
Appears in Collections:環境科学院・地球環境科学研究院 (Graduate School of Environmental Science / Faculty of Environmental Earth Science) > 雑誌発表論文等 (Peer-reviewed Journal Articles, etc)

Submitter: 三浦 徹

Export metadata:

OAI-PMH ( junii2 , jpcoar_1.0 )

MathJax is now OFF:


 

 - Hokkaido University