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
By Carl Zimmer, The New York Times | 06.04.2026
Scientists at Columbia University have edited the DNA of early human embryos with unprecedented accuracy, an achievement that could open the way to babies engineered with particular characteristics.
The prospect has fueled controversy for years. On the one hand, the...
By Alexandre Piquard, Le Monde [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.22.2026
"If proven to be safe, we believe preventive gene editing could be one of the most important health technologies of the century." This is how Lucas Harrington explained the goal of his company Preventive: to create genetically modified babies. Trying...
Faster, Higher, Stronger was the Olympic motto from 1874 until 2001, when “ – Together” was added, to stress the “moral and educational perspective” of the Games. The folks who paid for or participated in the Enhanced Games – the name itself a nod to the Olympics – held in Las Vegas on Sunday, May 24, apparently use a different edit:
Faster, Higher, Stronger with Chemistry
High-level sport draws huge crowds. Coming very soon, the soccer World Cup, featuring...
By Jenny Kleeman, The Guardian | 05.30.2026
On a Friday evening in late April, Cathy Tie, the Canadian serial entrepreneur and self-styled “Biotech Barbie”, is centre stage at New York City’s famous Carnegie Hall, performing Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No 2 on a gleaming Steinway grand piano, accompanied...
