Decoding the shared genetic toolkit for male sex determination

Phys.org

Center

High Factuality

Decoding the shared genetic toolkit for male sex determination

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen have broken new ground by demonstrating that an HMG-box gene in brown algae is crucial for determining male sex. This breakthrough significantly expands our understanding of sex-determination mechanisms in eukaryotic organisms. Until now, master sex-determination genes had been identified in only a select number of vertebrates and plants.