| | Two genes -- Dax 1 and Sry -- required for testis formation |
 | | Dax1 had been widely accepted as an “anti-testis” or ovary-determining gene because patients with a duplication or “double dose” of Dax1 had features of XY sex reversal, a condition in which individuals have the chromosomes of males but the physical attributes of females. |
 | | Because most XY females do not have Sry mutations, Joshua J. Meeks, Jeffrey Weiss, and J. Larry Jameson, M.D., of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, hypothesized that other genes are necessary for testis determination. |
 | | Expression of the Sry gene was similar in Dax1-deleted mice and in those in which Dax1 was normal, indicating that sex reversal is not caused by reduced Sry levels in Dax1-deleted mice. |
| www.eurekalert.org /pub_releases/2003-04/nu-tg-040803.php (382 words) |