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Sexual Differentiation in Dragonflies and Damselflies

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Spectrum of Sex

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Abstract

As represented by gynandromorphs (sexually mosaic individuals), sexual differentiation in insects proceeds primarily cell autonomously depending on sex chromosomes. Insect sex determination systems, although dominated by male heterogamety, are highly diverse. Dragonflies and damselflies (the order Odonata) are the most ancestral winged insects and have male heterogametic sex determination systems. Some species (e.g., Crocothemis servilia) have intraspecific polymorphisms in their karyotypes, such as switching from X0 to neo-XY sex chromosome system by chromosome fusion. In dragonflies and damselflies, adults of many species exhibit sexual color dimorphism, color transition upon adult maturation, and intraspecific color polymorphisms within the same sex. Molecular mechanisms underlying sex determination and sexual differentiation in insects have been investigated extensively in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, but recent studies have revealed that the upstream genes of insect sex determination cascade are highly diverse. Most insects have sex-specific isoforms for doublesex (dsx) gene, which is important for sexual differentiation, and dsx gene plays important roles in masculinization not only for males but also for androchrome females in the damselfly Ischnura senegalensis. In this review, current knowledge on sex determination and sexual differentiation of insects is summarized, with particular focus on the most ancestral winged insects, dragonflies and damselflies.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Mitsutoshi Sugimura for photograph of gynandromorphic dragonfly and damselfly, Genta Okude and Mizuko Osanai-Futahashi for helpful comments of the manuscript. The writing was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI (JP18H02491 and JP20H04936).

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  1. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan

    Ryo Futahashi

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Correspondence to Ryo Futahashi .

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  1. Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan

    Minoru Tanaka

  2. Graduation School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan

    Makoto Tachibana

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Futahashi, R. (2022). Sexual Differentiation in Dragonflies and Damselflies. In: Tanaka, M., Tachibana, M. (eds) Spectrum of Sex. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5359-0_2

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