BIOL 443 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Sox9, Labioscrotal Swelling, Wt1
Document Summary
Embryonic inner cell mass cells and primordial germ cells: once cultured, escs can be coaxed into differentiation pathways by manipulation of transcription factors or treatment with paracrine factors and adhesion molecules. First is specification as a particular germ layer, then into particular tissues. These are generated by adding oct3/4, c0myc, sox2, and klf4 to differentiated cells via a disarmed retrovirus vector. Many current and potential medical uses with these. Sex determination: 99% of eukaryotes reproduce sexually, sexual reproduction is energetically costly, but serves 2 major purposes. Enhancing genetic diversity to respond to selective pressures. Maintaining genome integrity: sexual determination is a combination of genetic and environmental factors, and varies greatly even among close related classes, genetic sex determination can be genic or chromosomal. In mammals, the presence of a y chromosome specifies male. In birds, the presence of two z chromosomes (zz) specifies male, while zq specifies female.
