Identification of two teleost homologs of the Drosophila sex determination factor, transformer-2 in medaka (Oryzias latipes)》.pdfVIP

Mechanisms of Development 121 (2004) 991–996 /locate/modo Short report Identification of two teleost homologs of the Drosophila sex determination factor, transformer-2 in medaka (Oryzias latipes) a a b c Eri Shiraishi , Hideo Imazato , Takashi Yamamoto , Hayato Yokoi , Shin-ichi Abea, Takeshi Kitanoa,d,* aDepartment of Materials and Life Science, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan bDepartment of Mathematical and Life Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan cDepartment of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan dCREST, Japan Science and Technology Corporation, Saitama 332-0012, Japan Received 1 January 2004; received in revised form 12 March 2004; accepted 13 April 2004 Abstract Transformer-2 (Tra2), an RNA-binding protein, is an important regulator in Drosophila sex determination. In vertebrates, however, the role of Tra2 homologues is not known. We identified two teleost homologues of Tra2, which we named Tra2a and Tra2b, in medaka (Oryzias latipes). Furthermore, we demonstrated that both Tra2 mRNAs were predominantly expressed in germ cells of both sexes before the onset of sex differentiation, suggesting that both Tra2 homologues might be involved in the sex