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Sex-lethal is a gene found in Dipteran insects, named for its mutation phenotype in Drosophila melanogaster. It is most closely related to the ELAV/HUD subfamily of splicing factors.
In fruit flies, this protein participates in alternative splicing of the transformer gene, deciding the sex of the fly. It induces female-specific alternative splicing of the transformer pre-mRNA by binding to the tra uridine-rich polypyrimidine tract at the non-sex-specific 3' splice site during the sex-determination process. SXL binds also to its own pre-mRNA and promotes female-specific alternative splicing. SXL contains an N-terminal Gly/Asn-rich domain that may be responsible for the protein-protein interaction, and tandem RNA recognition motifs that show high preference to bind single-stranded, uridine-rich target RNA transcripts.
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