Sex Determination – Asian Scientist Magazine

How Amami Rats Stay Male Without Y Chromosomes

Scientists in Japan and the US have investigated how sex determination takes place in male Amami mice in the absence of a Y chromosome.

Male hormones turn out to be more important for developing ovaries than testes, at least in chickens.

Scientists have figured out how a rat species that lacks the Y chromosome still maintains male characteristics.

Though largely safe and well accepted, the IVF procedure causes defects in X chromosome inactivation which result in fewer girls being born.

Two genetic regions, one more than 100 million years old and the other new to science, control sex determination in ants, scientists say.

Female fish without the foxl3 gene produce fully functional sperm instead of eggs in their ovaries.

Scientists have found that the number of primordial germ cells regulates the gonadal switch in zebrafish.

Previously known to regulate female fertility, kisspeptin has now been shown to be involved in molding male brains.

In persimmons, a battle of the sexes is waged using RNA scissors encoded on the Y chromosome that snip up female-determining genes.

Scientists have made the surprising finding that piRNA rather than proteins determines sex in silkworms.