Intersex is required for female sexual development in Hermetia illucens

摘要

Sex-determination pathways are extremely diverse.Understanding the mechanism of sex determination in insects is important for genetic manipulation of the pest population and for breeding of economically valuable insects.Although sex determi-nation has been well characterized in the model species Drosophila melanogaster,little is known about this pathway in Stratiomyidae.In the present study,we first identified the Drosophila intersex(ix)homolog in Hermetia illucens,also known as the black soldier fly,which belongs to the Stratiomyidae family and which is an important insect for the con-version of various organic wastes.Phylogenetic analyses and multiple sequence alignment revealed that Hix is conserved compared with Drosophila.We showed that Hix is highly expressed in internal genitalia.Disruption of the Hix gene using CRISPR/Cas9 resulted in female-specific defects in external genitalia and abnormal and undersized ovaries.Taken together,our study furthers our understanding of sex determination in insects and could facilitatebreedingof H.illucens.