Normalised luciferase assay data

The Lepidoptera are an insect order of cultural, economic, and environmental importance, representing ∼10% of all described living species. Yet, for all but one of these species (silkmoth, Bombyx mori), the molecular genetics of how sexual fate is determined remains unknown. We investigated this in the diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella), a globally important, highly invasive, and economically damaging pest of cruciferous crops. Our previous work uncovered a regulator of male sex determination in P. xylostella—PxyMasc, a homolog of B. mori Masculinizer—which, although initially expressed in embryos of both sexes, is then reduced in female embryos, leading to female-specific splicing of doublesex. Here, through sequencing small RNA libraries generated from early embryos and sexed larval pools, we identified a variety of small silencing RNAs (predominantly Piwi-interacting RNAs [piRNAs]) complementary to PxyMasc, whose temporal expression correlated with the reduction in PxyMasc transc...鳞翅目（Lepidoptera）是兼具文化、经济与环境重要性的昆虫目级类群，约占已描述现存物种总数的10%。然而，除家蚕（Bombyx mori）这一物种外，其余所有鳞翅目物种的性别决定分子遗传机制仍未明确。我们以全球分布广泛、入侵性极强且对十字花科作物造成严重经济损失的重要害虫——小菜蛾（Plutella xylostella）为研究对象，对其性别决定机制展开探究。此前的研究已在小菜蛾中鉴定出雄性性别决定调控因子PxyMasc，它是家蚕Masculinizer的同源基因；该基因最初在两性胚胎中均有表达，但随后在雌性胚胎中的表达水平显著降低，进而导致doublesex基因发生雌性特异性剪接。本研究通过对早期胚胎以及分性别幼虫池构建的小RNA文库进行测序，鉴定出多种与PxyMasc互补的小型沉默RNA，其中以Piwi互作RNA（Piwi-interacting RNAs, piRNAs）为主，这类RNA的时序表达模式与PxyMasc转录本的表达下调趋势密切相关。