Abstract
The review deals with features of sex determination in vertebrates. The mechanisms of sex determination are compared between fishes, amphibians, reptilians, birds, and mammals. We focus on structural and functional differences in the role of sex-determining genes in different vertebrates. Special attention is paid to the role of estrogens in sex determination in nonmammalian vertebrates.
Highlights
One of the most fundamental and surprisingly diverse processes in the life history of an organism is the determination of sex
Different groups of vertebrates discovered the changes of all stages of the formation of sex characteristic of mammals: the chromosomal sex predetermination associated with the formation of the XX or XY zygote at fertilization, formation of testes or ovary, and the full development of the respective gonads, associated features
Some of them belong to the families of such as SOX genes and DM-containing genes, which are transcription factors controlled the sex determination
Summary
One of the most fundamental and surprisingly diverse processes in the life history of an organism is the determination of sex. The analysis of the differences between gonochoristic and hermaphroditic fish species will help to understand the mechanism of plasticity of sex determination in vertebrates [7]. There is the fact that the phenotypic sex of X. laevis carrying a pair of Z chromosomes can be altered from male to female by estrogens It suggests that the mechanism of sex determination is flexible in this species. Apart from the sex-determining genes, genes involved in gonadal differentiation may be conserved in all classes of vertebrates This is supported by the fact that genes such as foxl, dmrt, wt1, sox, sf1, cyp, and dax are evolutionary conserved genes from fish to mammals. A male sex-determining gene, if it exists, probably supports steroid hormones to direct indifferent gonads to a testis by inhibiting cyp transcription for ovarian formation. The indifferent gonad of R. rugosa remain to be identified (Figure 1) [10, 11]
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