A duplicated copy of DMRT1 in the sex-determining region of the Y chromosome of the medaka, Oryzias latipes.
The genes that determine the development of the male or female sex are known in Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, and most mammals. In many other organisms the existence of sex-determining factors has been shown by genetic evidence but the genes are unknown. We have found that in the fish medaka the Y chromosome-specific region spans only about 280 kb. It contains a duplicated copy of the autosomal DMRT1 gene, named DMRT1Y. This is the only functional gene in this chromosome segment and maps precisely to the male sex-determining locus. The gene is expressed during male embryonic and larval development and in the Sertoli cells of the adult testes. These features make DMRT1Y a candidate for the medaka male sex-determining gene.
Institute for Human Genetics, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany.
Indrajit
I
Nanda
Mariko
M
Kondo
Ute
U
Hornung
Shuichi
S
Asakawa
Christoph
C
Winkler
Atsushi
A
Shimizu
Zhihong
Z
Shan
Thomas
T
Haaf
Nobuyoshi
N
Shimizu
Akihiro
A
Shima
Michael
M
Schmid
Manfred
M
Schartl
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D022202:Chromosomes, Artificial, Bacterial; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017931:DNA Primers; D005260:Female; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009990:Oryzias / Q000235:genetics*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D019849:Sex Determination Processes; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D014998:Y Chromosome
C110547:DMRT1 protein; D017931:DNA Primers; D014157:Transcription Factors