Complementary sex determination locus of Argentine ants

Animals have evolved a variety of mechanisms for sex determination. Here we identify a new mechanism in the ant Linepithema humile. A multiallelic regulatory region of a long non-coding RNA acts as the primary signal of complementary sex determination (CSD) in a haplodiploid system. Heterozygous embryos at the CSD locus develop into females, while homozygotes and hemizygotes (haploid individuals) develop into males.