Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Puberty in 2013

Unravelling the mystery of puberty

  • Year in Review
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Endocrinology

View current issue Sign up to alerts

In 2013, considerable progress was made towards deciphering the molecular foundations of puberty. Loss of transcriptional repression was identified as a core mechanism underlying the onset of puberty, and this loss was found to be precipitated by epigenetic cues. It was also discovered that nutritional deprivation delays puberty by repressing reproductive neuroendocrine function.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Figure 1: The repressive control of puberty.

References

  1. Seminara, S. B. et al. The GPR54 gene as a regulator of puberty. N. Engl. J. Med. 349, 1614–1627 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. de Roux, N. et al. Hypogonadotropic hypogonadism due to loss of function of the KiSS1-derived peptide receptor GPR54. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 100, 10972–10976 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Lomniczi, A., Wright, H., Castellano, J. M., Sonmez, K. & Ojeda, S. R. A system biology approach to identify regulatory pathways underlying the neuroendocrine control of female puberty in rats and nonhuman primates. Horm. Behav. 64, 175–186 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Sykiotis, G. P., Pitteloud, N., Seminara, S. B., Kaiser, U. B. & Crowley, W. F. Jr. Deciphering genetic disease in the genomic era: the model of GnRH deficiency. Sci. Transl. Med. 2, 32rv2 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Ojeda, S. R. & Terasawa, E. in Hormones, Brain and Behavior Vol. 4 (eds Pfaff, D. et al.) 589–659 (Elsevier, New York, 2002).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  6. Pinilla, L., Aguilar, E., Dieguez, C., Millar, R. P. & Tena-Sempere, M. Kisspeptins and reproduction: physiological roles and regulatory mechanisms. Physiol. Rev. 92, 1235–1316 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Lomniczi, A. et al. Epigenetic control of female puberty. Nat. Neurosci. 16, 281–289 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Abreu, A. P. et al. Central precocious puberty caused by mutations in the imprinted gene MKRN3. N. Engl. J. Med. 368, 2467–2475 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Jong, M. T. et al. A novel imprinted gene, encoding a RING zinc-finger protein, and overlapping antisense transcript in the Prader–Willi syndrome critical region. Hum. Mol. Genet. 8, 783–793 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Owen, B. M. et al. FGF21 contributes to neuroendocrine control of female reproduction. Nat. Med. 19, 1153–1156 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors' work is supported by a grant from the USA National Science Foundation (IOS1121691).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sergio R. Ojeda.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ojeda, S., Lomniczi, A. Unravelling the mystery of puberty. Nat Rev Endocrinol 10, 67–69 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2013.233

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2013.233

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Navigation