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Sexual determination in zebrafish

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Abstract

Zebrafish have emerged as a major model organism to study vertebrate reproduction due to their high fecundity and external development of eggs and embryos. The mechanisms through which zebrafish determine their sex have come under extensive investigation, as they lack a definite sex-determining chromosome and appear to have a highly complex method of sex determination. Single-gene mutagenesis has been employed to isolate the function of genes that determine zebrafish sex and regulate sex-specific differentiation, and to explore the interactions of genes that promote female or male sexual fate. In this review, we focus on recent advances in understanding of the mechanisms, including genetic and environmental factors, governing zebrafish sex development with comparisons to gene functions in other species to highlight conserved and potentially species-specific mechanisms for specifying and maintaining sexual fate.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the NIH for supporting our research, to CCMS for animal care and husbandry, and to our colleagues for thoughtful discussions.

Funding

Research on sex determination in the Marlow lab is supported by NIHR01 GM133896 to FLM.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, One Gustave L. Levy, Place Box 1020, New York, NY, 10029-6574, USA

    Devora Aharon & Florence L. Marlow

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  1. Devora Aharon
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  2. Florence L. Marlow
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Contributions

DA and FLM wrote this review article and generated all figures.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Florence L. Marlow.

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Aharon, D., Marlow, F.L. Sexual determination in zebrafish. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 79, 8 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-021-04066-4

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