Onset of Sex Differentiation: Dialog Between Genes and Cells

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• 作者：Merchant-Larios ; Horacio ; Moreno-Mendoza ; Norma
• 关键词：Sex differentiation ; Gonads ; Gene expression ; Sertoli cells ; Organogenesis
• 刊名：Archives of Medical Research
• 出版年：2001
• 出版时间：November - December, 2001
• 年：2001
• 卷：32
• 期：6
• 页码：553-558
• 全文大小：138 K

文摘

During the late 1940s, Alfred Jost demonstrated that mammalian sex differentiation begins in fetal testis, producing two factors necessary for the establishment of phenotypic males. Castrated embryos prior to testis differentiation led to phenotypic female differentiation. Jost proposed the existence of a testis-determining factor (TDF), elucidated in 1990 and named SRY for humans and Sry for mice. Thereafter, an increasing list of genes expressed in the genital ridges of mouse embryos at the onset of gonad differentiation has appeared. To date, it is clear that complete understanding of the mechanisms underlying gonadal sex differentiation in mammals requires identification of key cell lineages in which gonadal-specific genes are expressed. Here, a correlation between known gene expression and gonadal morphologic changes is attempted.