Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comment
. 2019 Jan 1:8:e41523.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.41523.

A matter of timing

Michael W Perry  1 , Claude Desplan  1
Affiliations
Comment

A matter of timing

Michael W Perry et al. Elife. .

Abstract

A genetic pathway that times development works together with the sex-determination pathway to control the timing of sexually dimorphic neural development in C. elegans.

Keywords: C. elegans; gene regulation; genetics; neurons; neuroscience; sexual differentiation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

MP, CD No competing interests declared

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Sexual dimorphism in neurons.
The sex of an animal can modify the development of sex-specific neurons in several ways. (A) Male and female animals may develop the same type of neurons (shown in grey), but over the course of development, one sex (females in this case) may lose some of the neurons (blue) due to programmed cell death (skulls). The neurons of the other sex (male neurons in this case) then acquire sex-specific features (red). (B) Input from the sex-specific pathway can modify the number of cell divisions, producing extra neurons (blue) in one sex, which then acquire their sex-specific features (red). (C) Alternatively, neurons can develop sex-specific features that affect their shape and/or properties (red). In C. elegans, this is mediated by combination of the heterochronic pathway (which involves the genes let-7, lin-28 and lin-41) and sex-specific genes, such as lin29a or homologs of doublesex.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

References

    1. Chen YC, Chen LM, Lin HH, Chen BH, Chao MC, Hsiao HP. Association study of LIN28B in girls with precocious puberty. Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2017;30:663–667. doi: 10.1515/jpem-2016-0101. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Corre C, Shinoda G, Zhu H, Cousminer DL, Crossman C, Bellissimo C, Goldenberg A, Daley GQ, Palmert MR. Sex-specific regulation of weight and puberty by the Lin28/let-7 axis. Journal of Endocrinology. 2016;228:179–191. doi: 10.1530/JOE-15-0360. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Emmons SW. Neural circuits of sexual behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans. Annual Review of Neuroscience. 2018;41:349–369. doi: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-070815-014056. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kimura K, Hachiya T, Koganezawa M, Tazawa T, Yamamoto D. Fruitless and Doublesex coordinate to generate male-specific neurons that can initiate courtship. Neuron. 2008;59:759–769. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.06.007. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kohl J, Ostrovsky AD, Frechter S, Jefferis GS. A bidirectional circuit switch reroutes pheromone signals in male and female brains. Cell. 2013;155:1610–1623. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.11.025. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Substances