Conservation of a sex-determining gene

Craig A. Smith, Peter J. McClive, Patrick S. Western, Kirsty J. Reed and Andrew H. Sinclair
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Craig A. Smith: University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital
Peter J. McClive: University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital
Patrick S. Western: University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital
Kirsty J. Reed: University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital
Andrew H. Sinclair: University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital

Nature, 1999, vol. 402, issue 6762, 601-602

Abstract: Abstract Vertebrates exhibit a surprising array of sex-determining mechanisms, including X- and Y-chromosome heterogametes in male mammals, Z- and W-chromosome hetero-gametes in female birds, and a temperature-dependent mechanism in many reptiles1. The Y-chromosome-linked SRY gene initiates male development in mammals2,3, but other vertebrates lack SRY and the genes controlling sex determination are largely unknown. Here we show that a gene implicated in human testis differentiation, DMRT1, has a gonad-specific and sexually dimorphic expression profile during embryogenesis in mammals, birds and a reptile (Alligator mississippiensis). Given the different sex-determining switches in these three groups, this gene must represent an ancient, conserved component of the ver-tebrate sex-determining pathway.

Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1038/45130

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