"Male Development of Chromosomally Female Mice

Early 1990s research conducted by Peter Koopman, John Gubbay, Nigel Vivian, Peter Goodfellow, and Robin Lovell-Badge, showed that chromosomally female (XX) mice embryos can develop as male with the addition of a genetic fragment from the Y chromosome of male mice. The genetic fragment contained a segment of the mouse [4] Sry gene, which is analogous to the human SRY gene. The researchers sought to identify Sry gene as the gene that produced the testis determining factor protein (Tdf protein in mice or TDF protein in humans [5]), which initiates the formation of testis. Koopman's team published their results in 1991 in "Male Development of Chromosomally Female Mice Transgenic for Sry gene." Their results showed that Sry gene partly determines the sex of an embryo and is the only gene on the Y chromosome necessary for initiation of male development in mice.