A Duplicated Copy of DMRT1 in the Sex-Determining Region of the Y Chromosome of the Medaka, Oryzias latipes

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 99; no. 18; pp. 11778 - 11783
• Main Authors: Nanda, Indrajit, Kondo, Mariko, Hornung, Ute, Asakawa, Shuichi, Winkler, Christoph, Shimizu, Atsushi, Shan, Zhihong, Haaf, Thomas, Shimizu, Nobuyoshi, Shima, Akihiro, Schmid, Michael, Schartl, Manfred
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 03-09-2002; National Acad Sciences; The National Academy of Sciences
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Base Sequence; Biological Sciences; Chromosomes, Artificial, Bacterial; Cloning, Molecular; Complementary DNA; DNA; DNA Primers; Female; Fish; Genes; Genetics; Genomics; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; Male; Mammals; Molecular Sequence Data; Oryzias - genetics; Polymerase chain reaction; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Sex chromosomes; Sex determination; Sex Determination Processes; Sexes; Testes; Transcription Factors - chemistry; Transcription Factors - genetics; Y Chromosome
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.182314699

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.