Progress on mosquito sex determination and population control
Mosquitoes(Diptera:Culicidae)are undoubtedly the most important insect vectors for the transmission of parasitic and viral infections to humans and animals and still pose serious public health risks.Mosquito vectors display distinct sexual dimorphisms between males and females.In addition to the visible primary sexual and secondary sexual characteristics,mosquitoes display distinguished,sexually dimorphic behaviour between sexes,and only adult females consume blood meals to complete ovarian follicle development.Therefore,cyclic reproduction in female mosquitoes serves as a foundation for the transmission of numerous disease-causing pathogens.Sex determination sets the stage for sexual differentiation and is the primary signal directing the embryo to develop as male or female.Sex determination in mosquito is controlled by a complex hierarchical regulatory cascade.Compared with high diversity of the primary sex-determining signal in different mosquito genus,the downstream genes in the hierarchical regulatory cascade are generally more conserved,such as the doublesex(dsx)and fruitless(fru),which acts as the terminal"double nexus"in the sex determination pathway.The precursor messenger RNA(pre-mRNA)of dsx gene is subjected to sex-specific alternative splicing(AS)regulation so that distinct male-and female-specific transcripts are produced in each sex and then control nearly all aspects of somatic sexual differentiation through asymmetric interactions between DSX and its tissue-and sex-specific target genes,which finally mediate sexual dimorphism.However,significant variations in the male-determining factor(M-factor)have been observed across different mosquito species.Furthermore,the missing link between Nix and dsx in the sex determination cascade in mosquitoes remains to be further explored.Currently,the manipulation of sex-determination factors has enabled the distortion of mosquito sex ratios or the selective elimination or incapacitation of female mosquitoes.This review summarizes the origin and evolution of M-factor,and mechanistic role of M-factor in regulating sex determination in mosquito,introduces the response mechanisms of downstream signaling pathways,explored the novel strategies based on targeting sex determination to suppress mosquito populations.The aim of this review is to further delve into the molecular mechanisms underlying sex determination in mosquitoes and identify potential molecular targets for mosquito control.
Mosquito sex determinationM-factorDoublesexMosquito control
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