Fourth Symposium Biology Vertebrate Sex Determination

描述（由申请人提供）：我们要求支持定于2006年4月24日至28日在夏威夷科纳举行的第四届脊椎动物性别决定生物学国际研讨会。这次会议得到了整个国际社会的热烈支持，并由研究各种脊椎动物系统的科学家参加，包括鱼类、鸟类、爬行动物、猪、山羊、马、老鼠、有袋动物和人类。其中一些物种依赖环境性别决定，如视觉或种群线索，或卵孵化的温度。相比之下，所有哺乳动物物种都使用一种遗传性别决定系统，该系统依赖于y连锁基因Sry。尽管存在这种多样性，但涉及许多相同的遗传途径。令人惊讶的是，睾丸和卵巢器官发生的机制被证明是高度分化的，为发育机制的进化提供了令人兴奋的见解。会议的重点议题将包括性别决定机制的进化、性腺以外的性别分化（包括脑和其他两性二态特征）、环境毒素及其与性别分化障碍和不育的关系、性腺作为生殖细胞干细胞生态位的作用、睾丸和卵巢器官发生过程中的细胞命运承诺和细胞信号，以及卵巢癌和睾丸癌的因素。由于几乎不可能跟上这么多不同系统的进步，这次会议的目的是交流信息，利用比较系统来推进我们对性别决定和性别分化过程的理解。前三次会议产生了大量的合作：交换了试剂，计划了实验，讨论了看待性别决定的新方法。我们期待第四次会晤同前三次会晤一样富有成果和刺激。在过去的两届研讨会上，报名人数在120-130人之间，大多数人不是演讲就是海报。随着过去几年性别决定实验室数量的增长，我们预计今年的数量将增加到大约140-150个，基因组阵列技术和突变体生产的进步提供了大量的数据，需要更好地整合到该领域的思维中。了解决定性别的关键基因是如何进化的，以及它们如何在低等脊椎动物中发挥作用，有望改善人类疾病的诊断和治疗。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We request support for The Fourth International Symposium on the Biology of Vertebrate Sex Determination scheduled to take place in Kona, Hawaii, April 24-28, 2006. This meeting has the enthusiastic endorsement of the entire international community and is attended by scientists working on diverse vertebrate systems including fish, birds, reptiles, pigs, goats, horses, mice, marsupials, and humans. Some of these species rely on environmental sex determination, such as visual or population clues, or temperature of egg incubation. In contrast, all mammalian species use a genetic sex-determining system that depends on the Y-linked gene Sry. Despite this diversity, many of the same genetic pathways are involved. Surprisingly, the mechanisms of testis and ovary organogenesis are proving to be highly diverged and providing exciting insights into the evolution of developmental mechanisms. Topics of concentration at the meeting will include the evolution of sex determining mechanisms, sexual differentiation outside the gonad (including brain and other sexually dimorphic features), environmental toxins and their relation to sex differentiation disorders and infertility, the role of the gonad as a stem cell niche for germ cells, cell fate commitment and cell signaling during organogenesis of the testes and ovaries, and factors responsible for ovarian and testicular cancers. As it is nearly impossible to keep up with the advances made in so many diverse systems, the goal of this meeting is to exchange information, using comparative systems to advance our understanding of the process of sex determination and sex differentiation. A great deal of collaboration came about as a result of the first three meetings: reagents were exchanged, experiments planned and new ways of looking at sex determination discussed. We expect the fourth meeting to be as productive and stimulating as the previous three. In the past two symposia, the enrollment has been between 120-130, most of whom presented either a talk or a poster. We expect an increase this year to approximately 140-150 as the number of sex-determination laboratories has grown in the last few years, and the advances in genomic array technology and production of mutants have provided a flood of data that needs to be better integrated into the thinking in the field. Understanding how critical genes in sex determining pathways evolved and how they function in lower vertebrates is expected to improve diagnosis and treatment of human disorders.