4 Sex-SpecificDifferences in the Control of Mammalian Gametogenesis: Wiwe la Difference!

摘要

The notion that the highly differentiated mammalian gametes would have gamete-specific genes that are important for their differentiation and function is almost self-evident. The structural components of these specialized cells, such as proteins in the acrosome, flagellum, and zona pellucida would be expected to and indeed do exhibit sexually dimorphic expression and function. This class of sex-specific genes is excluded from the following discussion. Rather, we will explore the roles of genes that by virtue of their common expression in both oocytes and spermatocytes or their conserved function in gametes across species might be expected to be important to germ cell function in mammals -yet have proven to defy our best predictions!