The Sex Determining Mechanism of Monotremes in the Absence of SRY
Anton Taylor, Marcus Isidro
Department of Biology
Faculty Supervisor: Scott Roy
The SRY gene on the Y chromosome is the major masculinizing gene in mammals, and is highly conserved amongst species. In addition to its core testis determination function, SRY is also expressed in the brain, and its involvement in developmental disorders such as autism suggests its importance in regulating brain function. Despite this, numerous rodent lineages have lost the SRY gene, raising the question of how these species regulate ancestrally SRY-dependent genes. To answer this question we studied RNA sequencing data from the neural tissue of male and female mice and other rodents to understand the importance of Sry in standard mammals, and to understand how the loss of SRY impacts male-female differentiation in atypical rodents.