Open AccessCis-Regulatory Control of Mammalian Sex Determination
Author(s) -
Meshi Ridnik,
Stefan Schoenfelder,
Nitzan Gonen
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
sexual development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1661-5433
pISSN - 1661-5425
DOI - 10.1159/000519244
Subject(s) - biology , disorders of sex development , testis determining factor , gene , genetics , sex reversal , context (archaeology) , gonad , steroidogenic factor 1 , sox9 , chromatin , sexual differentiation , cell fate determination , computational biology , transcription factor , evolutionary biology , y chromosome , endocrinology , paleontology , nuclear receptor
Sex determination is the process by which an initial bipotential gonad adopts either a testicular or ovarian cell fate. The inability to properly complete this process leads to a group of developmental disorders classified as disorders of sex development (DSD). To date, dozens of genes were shown to play roles in mammalian sex determination, and mutations in these genes can cause DSD in humans or gonadal sex reversal/dysfunction in mice. However, exome sequencing currently provides genetic diagnosis for only less than half of DSD patients. This points towards a major role for the non-coding genome during sex determination. In this review, we highlight recent advances in our understanding of non-coding, cis-acting gene regulatory elements and discuss how they may control transcriptional programmes that underpin sex determination in the context of the 3-dimensional folding of chromatin. As a paradigm, we focus on the Sox9 gene, a prominent pro-male factor and one of the most extensively studied genes in gonadal cell fate determination.