Sex determination in animals and fungi is regulated by specific sex-determining genes. The Aspergillus nidulans mating type gene matA and the human SRY (Sex-Determining Region Y) encode proteins containing a single HMG (high-mobility group) domain. Analysis of the amino-acid sequence of MatA and SRY transcription factors revealed significant structural similarity. The human SRY protein is able ...

Brain sexual differentiation is orchestrated by precise coordination of sex steroid hormones. In some species, programming of select male brain regions is dependent upon aromatization of testosterone to estrogen. In mammals, these hormones surge during the organizational and activational periods that occur during perinatal development and adulthood, respectively. In various fish and reptiles, i...

BACKGROUND Our laboratory has shown that a locus on the SHR Y chromosome increases blood pressure (BP) in the SHR rat and in WKY rats that had the SHR Y chromosome locus crossed into their genome (SHR/y rat). A potential candidate for this Y chromosome hypertension locus is Sry, a gene that encodes a transcription factor that is responsible for testes development and the Sry protein may affect ...

Whilst gonadal hormones can substantially influence sexual differentiation of the brain, recent findings have suggested that sex-linked genes may also directly influence neurodevelopment. Here we used the well-established murine 'four core genotype' (FCG) model on a gonadally-intact, outbred genetic background to characterise the contribution of Sry-dependent effects (i.e. those arising from th...

Background: The Y chromosome microdeletion is one of the best-documented causes of male infertility but the factors responsible for Y chromosome microdeletions in spermatozoa remain unresolved. However, the environmental pollutants are known to damage DNA in differentiating and maturing germ cells in the male reproductive tract. In view of this, the objective of the present study was to explore...

The decision of the bi-potential gonad to develop into either a testis or ovary is determined by the presence or absence of the Sex-determining Region gene on the Y chromosome (SRY). Since its discovery, almost 13 years ago, the molecular role that SRY plays in initiating the male sexual development cascade has proven difficult to ascertain. While biochemical studies of clinical mutants and mou...

The Y-chromosomal gene SRY acts as the primary trigger for male sex determination in mammalian embryos. Correct regulation of SRY is critical: aberrant timing or level of Sry expression is known to disrupt testis development in mice and we hypothesize that mutations that affect regulation of human SRY may account for some of the many cases of XY gonadal dysgenesis that currently remain unexplai...

In mammals, sexual differentiation of the gonads during development depends on the presence of the Y chromosome (1). The testis-determining gene lies on the Y chromosome, and has been delimited in human to a 35-kilobase region near the pseudoautosomal boundary (2). SRY is a gene located in this region and both conserved during evolution and Y chromosome specific in a number of mammals (3). The ...

BACKGROUND SOX9 is a widely expressed transcription factor playing several relevant functions during development and essential for testes differentiation. It is considered to be the direct target gene of the protein encoded by SRY and its overexpression in an XX murine gonad can lead to male development in the absence of Sry. Recently, a family was reported with a 178 kb duplication in the gene...

Mammals possess an XX/XY chromosomal system for sex determination. The presence of SRY, a masterregulatory gene on the Y chromosome, is necessary to induce the undifferentiated, bipotential gonadal primordium (the embryonic genital ridge) to develop as a testis. In the absence of SRY, it develops as an ovary I. Once the gonads differentiate, their maleor female-specific endocrine function is re...