Figure 3

Multiple sequence alignment of DSX homologues. Protein sequence alignment of DSX isoforms in Drosophila melanogaster, Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti. The sequences are divided into a region that is common to males and females (A), a first female-specific region (B), a second female-specific region (C) and a male-specific region (D). The amino-terminal DNA binding (OD1) and oligomerization domains (OD2) are boxed in grey. The asterisk (*) indicates six amino acids whose replacements has been shown to abolish DNA-binding activity in D. melanogaster; (**) double asterisks indicate the three amino acids specific for the DSX DM domain. Intron positions are indicated by solid triangles. The amino acid stretch marked in rectangular box corresponds to the 63-bp sequence removed in some but not all Aeadsx transcripts. This event leads to the in-frame deletion of the indicated 21-amino acid tract (see Figure 5B.3 for further details). Also the conserved removed amino acid stretch of An. gambiae is marked in rectangular box. Bold letters indicate amino acid identity in the homologous proteins. Gaps were introduced in the alignments to maximize similarity. The comparison of protein sequences was performed using Clustal-W (1.82).