Tissue-dependent epigenetic regulation in the establishment of gonadal sex differences and its failure mechanisms

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24590401
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Human genetics
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: HOSHI NOBUHIKO 神戸大学, (連合)農学研究科(研究院), 教授 (10209223)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YOKOYAMA Toshifumi 神戸大学, 大学院農学研究科, 助教 (10380156)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): TABUCHI Yoshiaki 富山大学, 生命科学先端研究センター (20322109)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 性分化 / 性差 / 性特異的遺伝子発現 / SRY / SOX9 / エピジェネティック制御

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Mammalian sexual fate is determined by the presence or absence of Sry in the bipotential gonads. Breeding the Y chromosome from Mus m. domesticus poschiavinus (pos) strains into C57BL/6J (B6J) mice (B6J-XYpos) has been shown to induce sex reversal. However, our C57BL/6N (B6N)-XYpos mice develop as males as well as females and true hermaphrodites. The onsets of both Sry and Sox9 expressions as determined spatiotemporally by whole-mount immunohistochemistry in the B6N-XYpos gonads occurred 2-3 tail somites later than those in B6N-XYB6 gonads, but earlier than those in B6J-XYpos, respectively. Our study is the first to histologically show the expression and ectopic localization of a female-related gene in the XYpos testes, and a male-related gene in the XYpos ovaries. The results from these and previous experiments indicate that the interplay between genome variants, epigenetics, and developmental gene regulation is crucial for testis development.

Free Research Field

分子細胞遺伝学