1. Gonadal soma-derived factor (gsdf), a TGF-beta superfamily gene, induces testis differentiation in the teleost fish Oreochromis niloticus
- Author
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Deshou Wang, Hikari Izumi, Yoshitaka Nagahama, Shouta Mizuno, Tohru Kobayashi, Shigeho Ijiri, Yuki Kuramochi, and Hiroyo Kaneko
- Subjects
Male ,endocrine system ,Candidate gene ,Sex Differentiation ,food.ingredient ,Biochemistry ,Nile tilapia ,Endocrinology ,food ,Transforming Growth Factor beta ,Testis ,Animals ,Molecular Biology ,Phylogeny ,Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ,Genetics ,Sex Characteristics ,Sexual differentiation ,biology ,Gene Expression Profiling ,Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental ,Transforming growth factor beta superfamily ,Tilapia ,Cichlids ,biology.organism_classification ,Molecular biology ,Sexual dimorphism ,Gene expression profiling ,Oreochromis ,human activities - Abstract
The Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, is a gonochoristic teleost fish with an XX/XY genetic system and is an excellent model for gonadal sex differentiation. In the present study, we screened novel genes that were expressed predominantly in either XY or XX undifferentiated gonads during the critical period for differentiation of gonads into ovaries or testes using microarray screening. We focused on one of the isolated 12 candidate genes, #9475, which was an ortholog of gsdf (gonadal soma-derived factor), a member of the transforming growth factor-beta superfamily. #9475/gsdf showed sexual dimorphism in expression in XY gonads before any other testis differentiation-related genes identified in this species thus far. We also overexpressed the #9475/gsdf gene in XX tilapia, and XX tilapia bearing the #9475/gsdf gene showed normal testis development, which suggests that #9475/gsdf plays an important role in male determination and/or differentiation in tilapia.
- Published
- 2015