Sex determination is a complex and dynamic process with multiple genetic and environmental causes, in which germ and somatic cells receive various sex-specific features. During the fifth week of fetal life, the bipotential embryonic gonad starts to develop in humans. In the bipotential gonadal tissue, certain cell groups start to differentiate to form the ovaries or testes. Despite considerable efforts and advances in identifying the mechanisms playing a role in sex determination and differentiation, the underlying mechanisms of the exact functions of many genes, gene-gene interactions, and epigenetic modifications that are involved in different stages of this cascade are not completely understood. This review aims at discussing current data on the genetic effects via genes and epigenetic mechanisms that affect the regulation of sex determination. Birth Defects Research (Part C) 108:321-336, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Keyphrases
- genome wide
- dna methylation
- copy number
- solid phase extraction
- gene expression
- molecularly imprinted
- genome wide identification
- induced apoptosis
- single cell
- genome wide analysis
- stem cells
- climate change
- risk assessment
- cell cycle arrest
- cell death
- clinical trial
- signaling pathway
- big data
- density functional theory
- cell proliferation
- artificial intelligence
- bone marrow
- pregnant women
- mass spectrometry
- gestational age
- placebo controlled
- machine learning
- human health