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Originally published as Genetics Published Articles Ahead of Print on August 20, 2008.
Genetics, Vol. 180, 179-190, September 2008, Copyright © 2008
doi:10.1534/genetics.108.089177
A Male-Specific Fatty Acid 
-Hydroxylase, SXE1, Is Necessary for Efficient Male Mating in Drosophila melanogaster
Shinsuke Fujii, Akemi Toyama and Hubert Amrein1
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710
1 Corresponding author: 252 CARL Bldg., Research Dr., Box 3509, Durham, NC 27710.
E-mail: hoa1{at}duke.edu
In Drosophila, sexual differentiation, physiology, and behavior are thought to be mediated by numerous male- and female-specific effector genes whose expression is controlled by sex-specifically expressed transcriptional regulators. One such downstream effector gene, sex-specific enzyme 1 (sxe1, cyp4d21), has been identified in a screen for genes with sex-biased expression in the head. Sxe1 was also identified in another screen as a circadian regulated gene. Here, we analyzed the spatial and temporal regulation of sxe1 and identified a function for this gene in male courtship. We show that male-specific transcriptional regulator DSXM and the clock genes are necessary for cycling of sxe1 mRNA during the diurnal cycle. Similar to sxe1 mRNA, expression of SXE1 protein oscillates in a diurnal fashion, with highest protein levels occurring around midnight. SXE1 protein expression is restricted to nonneuronal cells associated with diverse sensory bristles of both the chemo- and mechanosensory systems. Suppression or knockout of sxe1 significantly reduces mating success throughout the diurnal cycle. Finally, the metabolomic profile of wild-type and sxe1 mutant males revealed that sxe1 likely functions as a fatty acid 
-hydroxylase, suggesting that male courtship and mating success is mediated by small compounds generated by this enzyme.
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Genetics 2008 180: NP.
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