calpain and Disorders-of-Sex-Development

Apoptosis plays a key role in the effective removal of excessive and defective germ cells, which is essential for sequential hermaphroditism and sex change in vertebrates. The ricefield eel,

Topics: Animals; Apoptosis; bcl-2-Associated X Protein; Calpain; Cytochromes c; Disorders of Sex Development; Eels; Female; Hydrogen Peroxide; Male; Oocytes; Ovary; Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor, Type I; RNA, Messenger

The natural sexes of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans are the self-fertilizing hermaphrodite (XX) and the male (XO). The underlying genetic pathway controlling sexual phenotype has been extensively investigated. Mutations in key regulatory genes have been used to create a series of stable populations in which sex is determined not by X chromosome dosage, but in a variety of other ways, many of which mimic the diverse sex-determination systems found in different animal species. Most of these artificial strains have male and female sexes. Each of seven autosomal genes can be made to adopt a role as the primary determinant of sex, and each of the five autosomes can carry the primary determinant, thereby becoming a sex chromosome. Strains with sex determination by fragment chromosomes, episomes, compound chromosomes, or environmental factors have also been constructed. The creation of these strains demonstrates the ease with which one sex-determination system can be transformed into another.

Topics: Animals; Caenorhabditis elegans; Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; Calpain; Cell Cycle Proteins; Disorders of Sex Development; DNA-Binding Proteins; Female; Helminth Proteins; Male; Membrane Proteins; Phosphoprotein Phosphatases; RNA, Transfer; Sex Determination Processes; Temperature; Transcription Factors; X Chromosome