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Updated: Apr 30, 2026

RNAi Interference by dsRNA Injection into Drosophila Embryos
Published on: April 11, 2011
The sex-determining gene tra-2 of Drosophila encodes a putative RNA binding protein
H Amrein1, M Gorman, R Nöthiger
1Zoological Institute, University of Zürich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
The gene transformer-2 (tra-2) of Drosophila is necessary not only for female sexual differentiation but also for normal spermatogenesis in males. We have cloned and characterized the tra-2 gene. Its putative protein has a domain that is homologous to RNA binding proteins. This suggests that the tra-2 protein might achieve the female-specific splicing of the transcript of dsx, a sex-determining gene whose mode of expression depends on tra-2. The protein coding region of the tra-2 transcript is identical in males and females. In both sexes, a low level of transcript is present in the soma and a high level in the germ line. This indicates that tra-2 is regulated in a way different from other sex-determining genes.
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