Bidirectional evolution of an ancestral gene for sex determination : testis and ovary determination

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We examined the function of the sex-linked SOX3 for ovarian differentiation in the frog Rana rugosa. SOX3 is known to be an ancestral gene of the male determining gene SRY in eutherian mammals. Short nucleotide elements specific to the upstream regions of W-SOX3 and Z-SOX3, respectively, were identified. In the undifferentiated gonads of ZW, W-SOX3 was highly expressed and the higher expression preceded the onset of sexually dimorphic expression of CYP19 and FOXL2. Using transgenesis, we successfully obtained ZZ frogs of which germ cells were introduced by the W-SOX3, but their gonads did not differentiate ovaries.