{"title":"The Intersex Gene Is Crucial for Female Fertility and Embryonic Viability in the Red Flour Beetle, Tribolium castaneum","authors":"Chhavi Choudhary, Siddhi Paliwal, Keshav Kumar Meghwanshi, Sundaram Shilpi, Jayendra Nath Shukla","doi":"10.1002/dvg.70051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dvg.70051","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The <i>intersex</i> (<i>ix</i>) plays a pivotal role in the sex determination pathway of Drosophila melanogaster. The <i>Drosophila</i> Ix protein interacts with female-specific Doublesex protein to regulate female sexual differentiation. In this study, we functionally characterized the <i>ix</i> homologue (<i>Tcix</i>) in the red flour beetle, <i>Tribolium castaneum</i>. The <i>Tcix</i> gene comprises of four exons and three introns, and encodes a protein of 166 amino acids that contains a conserved ‘Mediator complex subunit 29’ (Med-29) domain. The pre-mRNA of <i>Tcix</i> splices in a non-sex-specific manner and is expressed across all the developmental stages of <i>T. castaneum</i>. RNA interference-mediated knockdown of <i>Tcix</i> in adult beetles led to a significant reduction in its expression in both sexes. Knockdown males did not show any phenotypic changes, but knockdown females displayed compromised ovarian development, resulting in reduced fecundity and failure of eggs to hatch. Interestingly, the expression of <i>vitellogenin-1</i> (<i>Vg-1</i>), a key gene involved in oocyte development, was significantly downregulated in these females. Further, parental RNAi of <i>Tcix</i> demonstrated the failure in the hatching of eggs, despite no significant effects on the number of eggs laid. The phylogenetic analysis of <i>Tcix</i> revealed its close clustering with other coleopterans, which supports its evolutionary conservation. Overall, our study establishes the critical role of <i>Tcix</i> in female fertility and embryonic development in <i>T. castaneum</i>.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":12718,"journal":{"name":"genesis","volume":"64 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Intersex Gene Is Crucial for Female Fertility and Embryonic Viability in the Red Flour Beetle, Tribolium castaneum","authors":"Chhavi Choudhary, Siddhi Paliwal, Keshav Kumar Meghwanshi, Sundaram Shilpi, Jayendra Nath Shukla","doi":"10.1002/dvg.70051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dvg.70051","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The <i>intersex</i> (<i>ix</i>) plays a pivotal role in the sex determination pathway of Drosophila melanogaster. The <i>Drosophila</i> Ix protein interacts with female-specific Doublesex protein to regulate female sexual differentiation. In this study, we functionally characterized the <i>ix</i> homologue (<i>Tcix</i>) in the red flour beetle, <i>Tribolium castaneum</i>. The <i>Tcix</i> gene comprises of four exons and three introns, and encodes a protein of 166 amino acids that contains a conserved ‘Mediator complex subunit 29’ (Med-29) domain. The pre-mRNA of <i>Tcix</i> splices in a non-sex-specific manner and is expressed across all the developmental stages of <i>T. castaneum</i>. RNA interference-mediated knockdown of <i>Tcix</i> in adult beetles led to a significant reduction in its expression in both sexes. Knockdown males did not show any phenotypic changes, but knockdown females displayed compromised ovarian development, resulting in reduced fecundity and failure of eggs to hatch. Interestingly, the expression of <i>vitellogenin-1</i> (<i>Vg-1</i>), a key gene involved in oocyte development, was significantly downregulated in these females. Further, parental RNAi of <i>Tcix</i> demonstrated the failure in the hatching of eggs, despite no significant effects on the number of eggs laid. The phylogenetic analysis of <i>Tcix</i> revealed its close clustering with other coleopterans, which supports its evolutionary conservation. Overall, our study establishes the critical role of <i>Tcix</i> in female fertility and embryonic development in <i>T. castaneum</i>.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":12718,"journal":{"name":"genesis","volume":"64 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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