Fig 1. Sex- and morph-specific expression of dsx isoforms in the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior.

(A) Schematic illustration of the sex-specific doublesex isoforms dsx^F and dsx^M. Numbers show sizes of exons and introns in bp. Arrows indicate approximate positions of primers (green: targeting both isoforms, red/blue: specific for dsx^F/dsx^M, respectively; green-exon2: dsx4_for4, green-exon3: dsx4_rev1, green-exon4: 4for, red: F5rev, blue: M5rev). (B-D) Normalized gene expression of dsx measured by qPCR in wingless (“ergatoid”) males (EM), winged males (WM), workers (WO) and queens (QU). (B) Expression of the DM domain-encoding exon in adults is higher in males than in females, and higher in winged than in wingless males. (C) dsx^F is significantly higher expressed in female than in male pupae, whereas dsx^M is significantly higher expressed in males than in females (D). Worker pupae express significantly more dsx^F than queen pupae, and adult workers express significantly less dsx^M than adult queens (C+D). Letters indicate significant differences. Sample sizes are given in parentheses, boxplots show the median, interquartile ranges (IQR) and 1.5 IQR.