Sexy splicing: Regulatory interplays governing sex determination from Drosophila to mammals

Abstract

A remarkable array of strategies is used to produce sexual differentiation in different species. Complex gene hierarchies govern sex determination pathways, as exemplified by the classic D. melanogaster paradigm, where an interplay of transcriptional, splicing and translational mechanisms operate. Molecular studies support the hypothesis that genetic sex determination pathways evolved in reverse order, from downstream to upstream genes, in the cascade. The recent identification of a role for the key regulatory factors SRY and WT1(+KTS) in pre-mRNA splicing indicates that important steps in the mammalian sex determination process are likely to operate at the post-transcriptional level.