Doublesex

 ( Drosophila Melanogaster Genes ) 

Doublesex ( dsx) is a gene that is involved in the sex determination system of many insects including the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.

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Sex determination The gene is gene expression in both male and female flies and is subject to alternative splicing, producing the dsx^f in females and the longer dsx^m in males. The production of dsx^f is caused by the presence of the female-specific version of the transformer ( tra) gene.

In a sense, the isoform of dsx informs a cell about the organism's sex; for instance, female genitals only develop if dsx^f is present. In conjunction with the gene fruitless, dsx also causes differences in the brain structure and behavior of males and females. Lay summary:

Although the details of sex determination differ in the various species, there is a gene related to dsx in (DMRT1) and in (MAB-3). All of these are transcription factors with a zinc finger DNA-binding domain (known as the DM domain) and are involved in sex-specific differentiation.

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