<i>Nix</i> alone is sufficient to convert female <i>Aedes aegypti</i> into fertile males and <i>myo-sex</i> is needed for male flight
Azadeh Aryan, Michelle A. E. Anderson, James K. Biedler, Yumin Qi, Justin M. Overcash, Anastasia N. Naumenko, Maria V. Sharakhova, Chunhong Mao, Zach N. Adelman, Zhijian Tu
Abstract
Significance The presence of a dominant male-determining locus (M-locus) in one of a pair of autosomes establishes the male sex in the dengue fever mosquito Aedes aegypti . The Ae. aegypti M-locus contains 30 genes, including Nix , a previously reported male-determining factor. Here we show that the Nix transgene alone was sufficient to convert females into fertile males, which continued to produce sex-converted progeny. We also show that a second M-locus gene named myo-sex was needed for male flight. Nix -mediated sex conversion was 100% penetrant, heritable, and stable, indicating great potential for developing mosquito-control strategies to reduce vector populations by female-to-male conversion. This work also sheds lights into the molecular basis of the function of the M-locus.