miRNAs Play a Key Role in Sexual Differentiation in the Fruit Fly (IMAGE)

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

miRNAs Play a Key Role in Sexual Differentiation in the Fruit Fly

Caption

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory researchers have found that miRNAs, short RNA molecules, are responsible for sexual differences in fruit flies. Shown here are testes from a male fruit fly where a hormone that controls a key miRNA has been inactivated. The abnormal testes fail to make sperm. They now produce sex determinants (shown in red) that are found in the ovaries of female flies.

Credit

D. Fagegaltier/ Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

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