TY  - JOUR
A1  - Adolfi, Mateus C.
A1  - Herpin, Amaury
A1  - Regensburger, Martina
A1  - Sacquegno, Jacopo
A1  - Waxman, Joshua S.
A1  - Schartl, Manfred
T1  - Retinoic acid and meiosis induction in adult versus embryonic gonads of medaka
JF  - Scientific Reports
N2  - In vertebrates, one of the first recognizable sex differences in embryos is the onset of meiosis, known to be regulated by retinoic acid (RA) in mammals. We investigated in medaka a possible meiotic function of RA during the embryonic sex determination (SD) period and in mature gonads. We found RA mediated transcriptional activation in germ cells of both sexes much earlier than the SD stage, however, no such activity during the critical stages of SD. In adults, expression of the RA metabolizing enzymes indicates sexually dimorphic RA levels. In testis, RA acts directly in Sertoli, Leydig and pre-meiotic germ cells. In ovaries, RA transcriptional activity is highest in meiotic oocytes. Our results show that RA plays an important role in meiosis induction and gametogenesis in adult medaka but contrary to common expectations, not for initiating the first meiosis in female germ cells at the SD stage.
KW  - developmental biology
KW  - molecular biology
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-147843
VL  - 6
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Biscotti, Maria Assunta
A1  - Carducci, Federica
A1  - Barucca, Marco
A1  - Gerdol, Marco
A1  - Pallavicini, Alberto
A1  - Schartl, Manfred
A1  - Canapa, Adriana
A1  - Contar Adolfi, Mateus
T1  - The transcriptome of the newt Cynops orientalis provides new insights into evolution and function of sexual gene networks in sarcopterygians
JF  - Scientific Reports
N2  - Amphibians evolved in the Devonian period about 400 Mya and represent a transition step in tetrapod evolution. Among amphibians, high-throughput sequencing data are very limited for Caudata, due to their largest genome sizes among terrestrial vertebrates. In this paper we present the transcriptome from the fire bellied newt Cynops orientalis. Data here presented display a high level of completeness, comparable to the fully sequenced genomes available from other amphibians. Moreover, this work focused on genes involved in gametogenesis and sexual development. Surprisingly, the gsdf gene was identified for the first time in a tetrapod species, so far known only from bony fish and basal sarcopterygians. Our analysis failed to isolate fgf24 and foxl3, supporting the possible loss of both genes in the common ancestor of Rhipidistians. In Cynops, the expression analysis of genes described to be sex-related in vertebrates singled out an expected functional role for some genes, while others displayed an unforeseen behavior, confirming the high variability of the sex-related pathway in vertebrates.
KW  - developmental biology
KW  - evolution
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-227326
VL  - 10
ER  -