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The Model of the Conserved Epigenetic Regulation of Sex
Epigenetics integrates genomic and environmental information to produce a given phenotype. Here, the model of Conserved Epigenetic Regulation of Sex (CERS) is discussed. This model is based on our knowledge on genes involved in sexual development and on epigenetic regulation of gene expression activ...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6775248/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31616469 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2019.00857 |
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author | Piferrer, Francesc Anastasiadi, Dafni Valdivieso, Alejandro Sánchez-Baizán, Núria Moraleda-Prados, Javier Ribas, Laia |
author_facet | Piferrer, Francesc Anastasiadi, Dafni Valdivieso, Alejandro Sánchez-Baizán, Núria Moraleda-Prados, Javier Ribas, Laia |
author_sort | Piferrer, Francesc |
collection | PubMed |
description | Epigenetics integrates genomic and environmental information to produce a given phenotype. Here, the model of Conserved Epigenetic Regulation of Sex (CERS) is discussed. This model is based on our knowledge on genes involved in sexual development and on epigenetic regulation of gene expression activation and silencing. This model was recently postulated to be applied to the sexual development of fish, and it states that epigenetic and gene expression patterns are more associated with the development of a particular gonadal phenotype, e.g., testis differentiation, rather than with the intrinsic or extrinsic causes that lead to the development of this phenotype. This requires the existence of genes with different epigenetic modifications, for example, changes in DNA methylation levels associated with the development of a particular sex. Focusing on DNA methylation, the identification of CpGs, the methylation of which is linked to sex, constitutes the basis for the identification of Essential Epigenetic Marks (EEM). EEMs are defined as the number and identity of informative epigenetic marks that are strictly necessary, albeit perhaps not sufficient, to bring about a specific, measurable, phenotype of interest. Here, we provide a summary of the genes where DNA methylation has been investigated so far, focusing on fish. We found that cyp19a1a and dmrt1, two key genes for ovary and testis development, respectively, consistently show an inverse relationship between their DNA methylation and expression levels, thus following CERS predictions. However, in foxl2a, a pro-female gene, and amh, a pro-male gene, such relationship is not clear. The available data of other genes related to sexual development such as sox9, gsdf, and amhr2 are also discussed. Next, we discuss the use of CERS to make testable predictions of how sex is epigenetically regulated and to better understand sexual development, as well as the use of EEMs as tools for the diagnosis and prognosis of sex. We argue that CERS can aid in focusing research on the epigenetic regulation of sexual development not only in fish but also in vertebrates in general, particularly in reptiles with temperature sex-determination, and can be the basis for possible practical applications including sex control in aquaculture and also in conservation biology. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6775248 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-67752482019-10-15 The Model of the Conserved Epigenetic Regulation of Sex Piferrer, Francesc Anastasiadi, Dafni Valdivieso, Alejandro Sánchez-Baizán, Núria Moraleda-Prados, Javier Ribas, Laia Front Genet Genetics Epigenetics integrates genomic and environmental information to produce a given phenotype. Here, the model of Conserved Epigenetic Regulation of Sex (CERS) is discussed. This model is based on our knowledge on genes involved in sexual development and on epigenetic regulation of gene expression activation and silencing. This model was recently postulated to be applied to the sexual development of fish, and it states that epigenetic and gene expression patterns are more associated with the development of a particular gonadal phenotype, e.g., testis differentiation, rather than with the intrinsic or extrinsic causes that lead to the development of this phenotype. This requires the existence of genes with different epigenetic modifications, for example, changes in DNA methylation levels associated with the development of a particular sex. Focusing on DNA methylation, the identification of CpGs, the methylation of which is linked to sex, constitutes the basis for the identification of Essential Epigenetic Marks (EEM). EEMs are defined as the number and identity of informative epigenetic marks that are strictly necessary, albeit perhaps not sufficient, to bring about a specific, measurable, phenotype of interest. Here, we provide a summary of the genes where DNA methylation has been investigated so far, focusing on fish. We found that cyp19a1a and dmrt1, two key genes for ovary and testis development, respectively, consistently show an inverse relationship between their DNA methylation and expression levels, thus following CERS predictions. However, in foxl2a, a pro-female gene, and amh, a pro-male gene, such relationship is not clear. The available data of other genes related to sexual development such as sox9, gsdf, and amhr2 are also discussed. Next, we discuss the use of CERS to make testable predictions of how sex is epigenetically regulated and to better understand sexual development, as well as the use of EEMs as tools for the diagnosis and prognosis of sex. We argue that CERS can aid in focusing research on the epigenetic regulation of sexual development not only in fish but also in vertebrates in general, particularly in reptiles with temperature sex-determination, and can be the basis for possible practical applications including sex control in aquaculture and also in conservation biology. Frontiers Media S.A. 2019-09-26 /pmc/articles/PMC6775248/ /pubmed/31616469 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2019.00857 Text en Copyright © 2019 Piferrer, Anastasiadi, Valdivieso, Sánchez-Baizán, Moraleda-Prados and Ribas http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Genetics Piferrer, Francesc Anastasiadi, Dafni Valdivieso, Alejandro Sánchez-Baizán, Núria Moraleda-Prados, Javier Ribas, Laia The Model of the Conserved Epigenetic Regulation of Sex |
title | The Model of the Conserved Epigenetic Regulation of Sex |
title_full | The Model of the Conserved Epigenetic Regulation of Sex |
title_fullStr | The Model of the Conserved Epigenetic Regulation of Sex |
title_full_unstemmed | The Model of the Conserved Epigenetic Regulation of Sex |
title_short | The Model of the Conserved Epigenetic Regulation of Sex |
title_sort | model of the conserved epigenetic regulation of sex |
topic | Genetics |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6775248/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31616469 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2019.00857 |
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