Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
immune cells have been detected in the sex changing gonads of the sea
bream
Sparus aurata
(Liarte et al., 2007).
The discovery of PCR in 1986 is a land mark event. Since its discovery
and patenting in 1987 (Process for Amplifying Nucleic Acids, US 4,683 dated
July 28, 1987), the machine has been developed into Real Time PCR in 1992
and RACE PCR in 2001. Yoshizaki et al. (2000), Kwon et al. (2001a,b) and
Guo et al. (2008b) are perhaps the fi rst to use PCR, RT PCR and RACE PCR
in this area of research, respectively. For instance, Yoshizaki et al. have used
a reverse transcription PCR analysis to show that the
Vasa
of rainbow trout
is maternally inherited. Since its introduction a little more than 15 years,
RT PCR has become the main technical platform for nucleic acid detection
in research and development (Kubista, 2008). At present almost all authors
working in the area of sex differentiation in fi shes seem to employ the RT
PCR (e.g., Tse and Ge, 2010; Gunter et al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2011).
Over the past 10 years, DNA microarrays have been used for the
analysis of gene expression (Goetz and MacKenzie, 2008). Microarrays
have been successfully employed by Santos et al. (2007) for the fi rst time
in this area of research. Santos et al. have provided the fi rst description and
analysis of the reproductive gonadal transcriptome of an actively breeding
zebrafi sh. Using affymetrix microarrays to gene expression patterns in male
and female somatic and gonadal tissues, Small et al. (2009) have reported
the differences in transcript abundance of 5,899 genes between male and
female zebrafi sh. All sex-biases in gene expression are due to the difference
between testes and ovaries.
There are many publications that discuss the potential benefi ts and
possible environmental hazards of transgenic fi shes (e.g., Zbikowska, 2003;
Murray and Maga, 2010). However transgenics are also generated for the
purpose of understanding the sex differentiation process. Krovel and Olsen
(2002, 2004) have found that the
Vas : : egfp
transgene is strongly expressed
in gonads of the female but only faintly in that of male zebrafi sh.
