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The Mechanism for Establishing the Binary Sex with Environmental Signals in the Crustacean Daphnia magna

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Spectrum of Sex

Abstract

The cladoceran crustacean Daphnia magna produces females parthenogenetically under healthy conditions. In response to environmental stresses such as starvation and higher population density, it produces males that are genetically identical to their sisters. Environment-dependent male production in D. magna can be interpreted as the shift of the position of the sex on the spectrum from the female side to the male side by the environmental cues. In this review, we introduce how the environment-dependent male determination is mediated via the endocrine system and the evolutionary conserved sex-determining gene Doublesex1 (Dsx1) in D. magna. We then describe how the binary sex can be achieved by regulation of Dsx1 at transcriptional, epigenetic, and post-transcriptional levels to prevent intersex phenotype.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan

    Yasuhiko Kato & Hajime Watanabe

Authors
  1. Yasuhiko Kato
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  2. Hajime Watanabe
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Correspondence to Yasuhiko Kato .

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Editors and Affiliations

  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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Kato, Y., Watanabe, H. (2022). The Mechanism for Establishing the Binary Sex with Environmental Signals in the Crustacean Daphnia magna. In: Tanaka, M., Tachibana, M. (eds) Spectrum of Sex. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5359-0_12

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