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Meaghan L Pimsler

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Sex Determination
and
​Sexual Dimorphism

I work with Chryomya rufifacies (Diptera: Calliphoridae), "the hairy maggot blow fly".  This species has monomorphic sex chromosomes, with males and females having the same size genome. This species also has monogenic sex determination, in which females produce only one sex of offspring throughout their entire life: Arrhenogenic females have only male offspring, and thelygenic females have only female offspring. The sex of offspring is a genetic trait of the mother, and is independant of environmental effect such as male genotype, temperature, or nutrition. It is hypothesized that female-producing females (thelygenic females) are heterozygote dominant for a factor produced in the ovaries that directs female offspring development, whereas males and arrhenogenic females are hypothesized to be homozygous recessive for this same trait. However, the exact genetic mechanism responsible for this sex determination mechanism is still unknown. Another interesting trait, In the larval stage this species also exhibits facultative predation, in which the larvae will switch from consuming carrion to hunting nearby maggots (including their own species in rare circumstances). The reason why some individuals which make this switch, and how, is still unclear.

My transcriptomic and genomic research on sex determination, sexually dimorphic development rates, functional genomics of facultative predation, and and sexually-dimorphic patterns of gene expression throughout immature development is ongoing, with new publications to be submitted soon.  

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