Piprek Rafal P, Podkowa Dagmara, Kloc Malgorzata, Kubiak Jacek Z
Department of Comparative Anatomy, Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research, Jagiellonian University, Kra-kow, Poland.
Int J Dev Biol. 2019;63(11-12):615-621. doi: 10.1387/ijdb.190049rp.
Mechanisms governing differentiation of the bipotential gonad into the testes or ovaries are complex and still vague. The primary cilium is an organelle involved in cell signaling, which controls the development of many organs, but the role of primary cilium in the sex determination and sexual differentiation of gonads is com-pletely unknown. Here we studied the expression of genes involved in primary cilium formation and function-ing in fetal mouse gonads, before, during and after sexual differentiation. We studied the expression of 175 primary cilia-related genes using microarray technique. 144 of these genes were ubiquitously expressed in all studied cell types with no significant differences in expression level. Such a high level of expression of primary cilia-related genes in developing mouse gonads suggests that the primary cilia and/or primary cilia-related genes are important for the development of both somatic and germline component of the gonads. Only 31 genes showed a difference in expression between different cell types, which suggests that they have different functions in the somatic and germ cells. These results justify further studies on the role of primary cilia and the primary cilia-related genes in gonad development.
双潜能性腺分化为睾丸或卵巢的调控机制复杂且仍不明确。初级纤毛是一种参与细胞信号传导的细胞器，它控制着许多器官的发育，但初级纤毛在性腺性别决定和性分化中的作用完全未知。在此，我们研究了在胎儿小鼠性腺性分化之前、期间和之后，参与初级纤毛形成和功能的基因的表达情况。我们使用微阵列技术研究了175个与初级纤毛相关的基因的表达。其中144个基因在所有研究的细胞类型中普遍表达，表达水平无显著差异。发育中的小鼠性腺中初级纤毛相关基因如此高的表达水平表明，初级纤毛和/或初级纤毛相关基因对性腺的体细胞和生殖细胞成分的发育都很重要。只有31个基因在不同细胞类型之间表现出表达差异，这表明它们在体细胞和生殖细胞中具有不同的功能。这些结果为进一步研究初级纤毛和初级纤毛相关基因在性腺发育中的作用提供了依据。
