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PMID: 3919386 Published · ppublish English Comparative Study Journal Article

Sex determination: a hypothesis based on noncoding DNA.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ·Vol. 82 ·No. 4 ·1985-02-00 ·Pages 1165-9

Chandra HS

Abstract

Certain recent models of sex determination in mammals, Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans, and snakes are examined in the light of the hypothesis that the relevant genetic regulatory mechanisms are similar and interrelated. The proposed key element in each of these instances is a noncoding DNA sequence, which serves as a high-affinity binding site for a repressor-like molecule regulating the activity of a major "sex-determining" gene. On this basis it is argued that, in several eukaryotes, (i) certain DNA sequences that are sex-determining are noncoding, in the sense that they are not the structural genes of a sex-determining protein; (ii) in some species these noncoding sequences are present in one sex and absent in the other, while in others their copy number or accessibility to regulatory molecules is significantly unequal between the two sexes; and (iii) this inequality determines whether the embryo develops into a male or a female.

MeSH Terms
Animals Base Sequence Biological Evolution Caenorhabditis/genetics DNA/genetics DNA, Satellite/genetics Drosophila melanogaster/genetics Female Genes, Regulator Male Mammals/genetics Models, Genetic Mutation Ploidies Sex Determination Analysis Snakes/genetics
Chemicals
DNA, Satellite DNA
Authors & Affiliations
1 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Chandra H S
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31 references, click to expand
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Article Info
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Abbr.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.82.4.1165
Published
1985-02-00
Pages
1165-9
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
7505876
PMCID
PMC397215
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1073/pnas.82.4.1165 PMC Full Text View journal details
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