Deleting a gene can turn an ovary into a testis in adult mammals

[Shana A]

Deleting a gene can turn an ovary into a testis in adult mammals
Grant Jacobs Jan 19

http://sciblogs.co.nz/code-for-life/2010/01/19/deleting-a-gene-can-turn-an-ovary-into-a-testis-in-adult-mammals/

You'd think that in adult mammals ovaries are ovaries, and that's it. They're committed to being what they are.

Or as geneticists would say, they're terminally differentiated: they've reached the end of their differentiation pathway.

Well, it seems you'd think wrong. (This writer, too!)

In a stunning paper Henriette Uhlenhaut and 14 others show that if adult mice lose a Foxl2 gene, ovaries become testes.