Tanaka Minoru, Saito Daisuke, Morinaga Chikako, Kurokawa Hiromi
Laboratory of Molecular Genetics for Reproduction, National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki 444-8787, Japan.
Dev Growth Differ. 2008 May;50(4):273-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-169X.2008.01015.x.
To evaluate the possible role of germ cells on sex differentiation of the gonads in vertebrates, the teleost fish, medaka (Oryzias latipes), was used to generate a gonad without germ cells. The germ cell-deficient medaka reveals multiple effects of germ cells on the process of sex differentiation. The previously isolated mutant medaka, hotei, with the excessive number of germ cells may support the contention that the proliferation of germ cells is related to feminization of the gonad. Futhermore, we show that two modes of proliferation for either maintenance of germ cells or commitment to gametogenesis are important components of the sex differentiation of medaka developing gonads. An intimate cross talk between germ cells and gonadal somatic cells during the sex differentiation will be discussed.
为了评估生殖细胞在脊椎动物性腺性别分化中可能发挥的作用，我们利用硬骨鱼青鳉（Oryzias latipes）构建了没有生殖细胞的性腺。缺乏生殖细胞的青鳉揭示了生殖细胞在性别分化过程中的多种作用。先前分离出的具有过多生殖细胞的突变青鳉hotei，可能支持生殖细胞增殖与性腺雌性化相关这一观点。此外，我们发现，生殖细胞增殖的两种模式，即维持生殖细胞或定向于配子发生，是青鳉发育中性腺性别分化的重要组成部分。我们还将讨论性别分化过程中生殖细胞与性腺体细胞之间密切的相互作用。
