Beyond X And Y Chromosomes: A New Genetic Basis For Sex Determination
Monday, August 18, 2014 - 16:51
in Biology & Nature
Men and women differ in plenty of ways,and scientists have long known that genetic differences buried deep within our DNA underlie these distinctions but past research has primarily focused on understanding how the genes that encode proteins act as sex determinants. In a new Genetics paper, scientists show that a subset of very small genes encoding short RNA molecules - miRNAs - also play a key role in differentiating male and female tissues in the fruit fly. A miRNA is a short segment of RNA that fine-tunes the activation of one or several protein-coding genes. miRNAs are able to silence the genes they target and, in doing so, orchestrate complex genetic programs that are the basis of development. read more