Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, Japan.
South Ehime Fisheries Research Center, Ehime University, Ainan, Japan.
Physiol Rev. 2021 Jul 1;101(3):1237-1308. doi: 10.1152/physrev.00044.2019. Epub 2020 Nov 12.
A diverse array of sex determination () mechanisms, encompassing environmental to genetic, have been found to exist among vertebrates, covering a spectrum from fixed mechanisms (mammals) to functional sex change in fishes (sequential hermaphroditic fishes). A major landmark in vertebrate was the discovery of the gene in 1990. Since that time, many attempts to clone an ortholog from nonmammalian vertebrates remained unsuccessful, until 2002, when was discovered as the gene of a small fish, medaka. Surprisingly, however, was found in only 2 species among more than 20 species of medaka, suggesting a large diversity of genes among vertebrates. Considerable progress has been made over the last 3 decades, such that it is now possible to formulate reasonable paradigms of how and gonadal sex differentiation may work in some model vertebrate species. This review outlines our current understanding of vertebrate and gonadal sex differentiation, with a focus on the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved. An impressive number of genes and factors have been discovered that play important roles in testicular and ovarian differentiation. An antagonism between the male and female pathway genes exists in gonads during both sex differentiation and, surprisingly, even as adults, suggesting that, in addition to sex-changing fishes, gonochoristic vertebrates including mice maintain some degree of gonadal sexual plasticity into adulthood. Importantly, a review of various mechanisms among vertebrates suggests that this is the ideal biological event that can make us understand the evolutionary conundrums underlying speciation and species diversity.
在脊椎动物中，已经发现了各种各样的性别决定机制，包括环境到遗传因素，涵盖了从固定机制（哺乳动物）到鱼类（连续雌雄同体鱼类）的功能性性别转换。脊椎动物中的一个主要里程碑是 1990 年发现了 基因。自那时以来，许多试图从非哺乳动物脊椎动物中克隆 同源物的尝试都没有成功，直到 2002 年，才发现 是一种小鱼——日本青鳉的 基因。然而，令人惊讶的是，在超过 20 种日本青鳉中，只发现了 2 种 基因，这表明脊椎动物中的 基因具有很大的多样性。在过去的 30 年中，已经取得了相当大的进展，现在可以制定出合理的范例，说明 和性腺性别分化在一些模式脊椎动物物种中是如何工作的。这篇综述概述了我们对脊椎动物 和性腺性别分化的理解，重点介绍了涉及的分子和细胞机制。已经发现了大量的基因和因子，它们在睾丸和卵巢分化中发挥着重要作用。在性别分化和性成熟期间，雌雄同体途径基因之间存在拮抗作用，这令人惊讶，即使在成年期也是如此，这表明除了性别转换鱼类外，包括小鼠在内的雌雄异体脊椎动物在成年期仍保持一定程度的性腺性可塑性。重要的是，对各种脊椎动物 机制的综述表明，这是一个理想的生物学事件，可以帮助我们理解物种形成和物种多样性背后的进化难题。
