Researchers identify female sex determining gene in mice

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and the Université Cote d'Azur, together with other labs in France and Switzerland, have identified a gene which is an early determining factor of ovary development in mice.

Understanding how chemical communication evolved in insects

All around us, insects are speaking to each other: jockeying for mates, searching for food, and trying to avoid becoming someone else's next meal. Some of this communication is easy to spot—like the flashes of fireflies ...

Novel sex-determination mechanism revealed in mammals

In mammals, the distinction between male and female at the chromosomal level is due to the X and Y chromosomes. Typically, females have two X chromosomes (XX) while males have an X and a Y chromosome (XY). The Sry gene on ...

Scientists use CRISPR technology to insert sex-determining gene

Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have successfully produced a bull calf, named Cosmo, who was genome-edited as an embryo so that he'll produce more male offspring. The research was presented in a poster ...

How to be a male without the Y chromosome

Hokkaido University researchers have revealed that key sex-determining genes continue to operate in a mammalian species that lacks the Y chromosome, taking us a step further toward understanding sex differentiation.

Sex, genes, the Y chromosome and the future of men

The Y chromosome, that little chain of genes that determines the sex of humans, is not as tough as you might think. In fact, if we look at the Y chromosome over the course of our evolution we've seen it shrink at an alarming ...

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