The mechanism of sex steroid-producing cell differentiation

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In this study, I am interested in the development of Leydig precursor cells, which has no genetic marker gene and therefore no one can identify in fetal testis, and try to understand the mechanisms of its development through the functional analyses of Arx KO mouse. From observations to date, I hypothesize that Arx positive cells contains Leydig precursor cells. To confirm this hypothesis, it is necessary to make transgenic mouse expressing tamoxifen-inducible Cre recombinase under control of transcriptional regulatory element of Arx gene. I am now searching for such elements from 5 BAC constructs around Arx gene in fetal testis. By transgenic assay using these BAC DNAs, I could not obtain target element yet.