Simple gene technique changes sex of a mouse
By Steve Connor,
The Independent
| 12. 11. 2009
From Minnie to Mickey (and all they did was turn off a gene)
The battle of the sexes is a never-ending war waged within ourselves
as male and female elements of our own bodies continually fight each
other for supremacy. This is the astonishing implication of a
pioneering study showing that it is possible to flick a genetic switch
that turns female ovary cells into male testicular tissue.
For
decades, the battle of the sexes has been accepted by biologists as a
real phenomenon with males and females competing against each other -
when their interests do not coincide - for the continued survival of
their genes in the next generation. Now scientists have been able to
show that a gender war is constantly raging between the genes and cells
of one individual.
One of the great dogmas of biology is that
gender is fixed from birth, determined by the inheritance of certain
genes on the X and Y sex chromosomes. But this simplistic idea has been
exploded by the latest study, which demonstrated that fully-developed
adult females can undergo a partial sex change following a genetic
modification to a single gene.
The...
Related Articles
The Center for Genetics and Society is delighted to recommend the current edition of GMWatch Review – Number 589. UK-based GMWatch, a long-standing ally, was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Matthews as an independent organization seeking to counter the enormous corporate political power and propaganda of the GMO industry and its supporters. Matthews and Claire Robinson are its directors and managing editors.
CGS works to ensure that social justice, equity, human rights, and democratic governance are front...
If you’ve been online or caught the news in the past few weeks, you’ve probably come across Sydney Sweeney, her “great genes jeans,” and much debate over whether they reflect a resurgence of eugenics in American politics and culture.
In case you missed it, here’s what happened. At the end of July, US-based clothing company American Eagle released a new ad campaign. In one ad, Sweeney breathily recites the following, while lying back to zip up her jeans:
Genes are...
By Ryan Cross, Endpoints News | 08.19.2025
Human eggs are incredibly rare cells. The ovary typically produces only 400 mature eggs across a woman’s life. But biologists in George Church’s lab at Harvard University — a group that’s never content with nature’s limits — just got a...
By Staff, National Women's Law Center | 08.13.2025
INTRODUCTION
Baby bonuses. Motherhood medals. Fertility tracking. You may have heard of these policy proposals as solutions from the Trump administration to help encourage women to have more children.
Besides falling short of ensuring that people have what they need...