Wertz K, Herrmann B G
Max-Planck-Institut für Immunbiologie, Abt. Entwicklungsbiologie, Stübeweg 51, 79108, Freiburg, Germany.
Mech Dev. 2000 Nov;98(1-2):51-70. doi: 10.1016/s0925-4773(00)00452-4.
The vertebrate gonad develops from the intermediate mesoderm as an initially bipotential organ anlage, the genital ridge. In mammals, Sry acts as a genetic switch towards testis development. Sox9 has been shown to act downstream of Sry in testis development, while Dax1 appears to counteract Sry. Few more genes have been implicated in early gonad development. However, the genetic networks controlling early differentiation events in testis and ovary are still far from being understood. In order to provide a broader basis for the molecular analysis of gonad development, high-throughput gene expression analysis was utilized to identify genes specifically expressed in the gonad. In total, among 138 genes isolated which showed tissue specific expression in the embryo, 79 were detected in the developing gonad or sex ducts. Twenty-seven have not been functionally described before, while 40 represent known genes and 12 are putative mouse orthologues. Forty-five of the latter two groups (86%) have not been described previously in the fetal gonad. In addition, 21 of the gonad specific genes showed sex-dimorphic expression suggesting a role in sex determination and/or gonad differentiation. Eighteen of the latter (86%) have not been described previously in the fetal gonad. In total we provide new data on 72 genes which may play a role in gonad or sex duct development and/or sex determination. Thus we have generated a large gene resource for the investigation of these processes, and demonstrate the suitability of high-throughput gene expression screening for the genetic analysis of organogenesis.
脊椎动物的性腺从中胚层中部发育而来，最初是一个具有双向潜能的器官原基，即生殖嵴。在哺乳动物中，Sry作为睾丸发育的基因开关。已证明Sox9在睾丸发育中作用于Sry的下游，而Dax1似乎对Sry起拮抗作用。很少有其他基因与性腺早期发育有关。然而，控制睾丸和卵巢早期分化事件的遗传网络仍远未被理解。为了为性腺发育的分子分析提供更广泛的基础，利用高通量基因表达分析来鉴定在性腺中特异性表达的基因。总共，在分离出的138个在胚胎中表现出组织特异性表达的基因中，有79个在发育中的性腺或性导管中被检测到。其中27个以前没有功能描述，40个代表已知基因，12个是推定的小鼠直系同源基因。后两组中的45个（86%）以前在胎儿性腺中没有描述。此外，2例性腺特异性基因表现出性别二态性表达，提示其在性别决定和/或性腺分化中起作用。其中18个（86%）以前在胎儿性腺中没有描述。我们总共提供了72个基因的新数据，这些基因可能在性腺或性导管发育和/或性别决定中起作用。因此，我们为研究这些过程生成了大量的基因资源，并证明了高通量基因表达筛选对器官发生遗传分析的适用性。
