| dc.description.abstract | Calliphoridae is a large family of insects, and contains species Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae) (Meigen), Cochliomyia macellaria (Diptera: Calliphoridae) (Fabricius) and Chrysomya rufifacies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) (Macquart). These species are important medically and economically, and are commonly used in forensic investigations. In forensics, development data for species is used to predict time of colonization (TOC) estimates. However, there is sexual dimorphism in blow fly development and it is poorly understood. The difference in physical traits, as well as gene expression, may result in development disparities between sexes. For this reason, it is important to optimize a sex identification assay to aide in predicting more accurate TOC intervals for L. sericata, C. macellaria and C. rufifacies. Sex determination is an important assignment made in development. In the case of calliphorids, most undergo transformer (tra) splicing and resulting doublesex (dsx) splicing gives rise to downstream sex-specific characteristics. This may cause differing development in males and females leading to imprecise TOC estimates when not accounted for. Using known primer sets for tra and dsx, an assay for sex identification can be optimized. The newfound information on sex, in combination with published transcriptomes, can result in sex-specific interpretation of gene expression, yielding more accurate data sets for species. | en |
