Qiaowei (Miya) Pan

Insect sex determination and development

Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen
IMPRS faculty

Vita

Miya Pan, a group leader at the MPI Biology

PhD, INRAe, Rennes, France, 2014- 2017
Postdoc in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, 2018 -2024
Postdoc at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Mainz, Germany, 2024 - 2025
Principal investigator, GenEvo RTG, Mainz, 2024 - 2025
Max Planck Research Group Leader (Starting Feb 2026)

Research Interest

Changes in developmental programs drive the evolution of new traits. Why some developmental processes remain highly conserved across lineages, while others evolve with remarkable dynamism is a key question in evolutionary biology. We study sex determination, a fundamental developmental process whose molecular basis varies enormously across eukaryotes. While most existing research focuses on sex chromosome systems, many organisms rely on entirely different molecular architectures. Our group seeks to establish new comparative systems to uncover novel molecular mechanisms and the general principles that govern the emergence and diversification of sex-determination mechanisms.

Figure 1. An Argentine ant worker (female) with a conspecific male.

Figure 1. An Argentine ant worker (female) with a conspecific male.

Our research focuses on haplodiploidy, a sex-determination system that has repeatedly evolved and is found in roughly 15% of animals, including major pollinators and agricultural pests. Under this system, there are no sex chromosomes, females develop from diploid eggs while males from haploid eggs. To date, the molecular mechanism has only been studied in three species, and revealed two categories of mechanisms under haplodiploidy: i) complementary sex determination, which relies on allelic variation at sex locus (or loci), implicating completely unrelated genes in honeybee and the Argentine ant, and ii) non-complementary sex determination, which does not rely on genomic sequence variation and is understood in only a single species where it is linked to maternal imprinting. These diverse mechanisms of haplodiploidy provide a rich framework complementary to sex chromosome systems for studying the evolution of sex determination.

Our lab aims to understand the molecular mechanism and evolutionary dynamics of haplodiploid sex determination systems.

Figure 2. A laboratory colonies of Argentine ants, with brood at all developmental stages, adult workers, and a queen in the center of the field.

Figure 2. A laboratory colonies of Argentine ants, with brood at all developmental stages, adult workers, and a queen in the center of the field.

1) We investigate the molecular basis of sex determination in ants, an unusual mechanism where allelic complementarity at a non-coding locus regulates the expression of a long non-coding RNA. Using molecular, genomic, and functional approaches, we explore how this RNA is regulated, how it influences developmental fate and how non-coding elements can evolve as key regulators of developmental processes.

2) Combining comparative genomics and a phylogenetic framework, we explore how different molecular mechanisms of sex determination originate and transition across haplodiploid lineages such as ants, wasps, and beetles.

Available PhD Projects

Currently not recruiting doctoral researchers.

Selected Reading

Yu C, Hodapp D, Moog S, Dupont S, Darrouzet E, Keller Valsecchi CI, Colgan TJ, Pan Q*, and Darras H*.(2026). Deep evolutionary conservation of a sex-determining locus without sequence homology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). (* indicates equal contribution)
Pan Q, Darras H, and Keller L. (2024). LncRNA gene ANTSR coordinates complementary sex determination in the Argentine ant. Science advances. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adp1532
Pan Q, Feron R, Jouanno E, Darras H ... Guiguen Y. (2021). The rise and fall of the ancient northern pike master sex-determining gene. Elife. doi: 10.7554/eLife.62858
Pan Q, Feron R, Yano A, Guyomard R ... Guiguen Y. (2019). Identification of the master sex determining gene in Northern pike (Esox lucius) reveals restricted sex chromosome differentiation. PLoS Genetics. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008013