From Minnie to Mickey (and all they did was turn off a gene) - Science, News - The Independent

[dracodraconis]

From Minnie to Mickey (and all they did was turn off a gene) - Science, News - The Independent

Scientists have discovered that switching off a single gene, FoxL2, causes the ovary cells of adult mice to spontaneously develop into testosterone-producing cells. They speculate that research like this might one day may eliminate the need for surgical removal of the ovaries in gender reassignment treatment; however, much work is needed to determine if the results are applicable to humans.

Comments

[nightprincess]

That is way cool.

I wonder what would happen if we could turn off both FoxL2 and Sox9 at the same time.

[dracodraconis]

I suspect that the effect would be similar to having FoxL2 active but not being a biochemist I'm not sure. Given genes often have multiple functions so I would wonder what else would be affected.