Blanche Capel

Journal article Development · December 2003 Featured Publication The developmental fate of primordial germ cells in the mammalian gonad depends on their environment. In the XY gonad, Sry induces a cascade of molecular and cellular events leading to the organization of testis cords. Germ cells are sequestered inside test ... Full text Link to item Cite

Endothelial and steroidogenic cell migration are regulated by WNT4 in the developing mammalian gonad.

Journal article Development · August 2003 Featured Publication The signalling molecule WNT4 has been associated with sex reversal phenotypes in mammals. Here we show that the role of WNT4 in gonad development is to pattern the sex-specific vasculature and to regulate steroidogenic cell recruitment. Vascular formation ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cell proliferation is necessary for the determination of male fate in the gonad.

Journal article Dev Biol · June 15, 2003 Featured Publication Cell proliferation has been shown to have multiple functions in development and pattern formation, including roles in growth, morphogenesis, and gene expression. Previously, we determined that the earliest known morphological event downstream of the male s ... Full text Link to item Cite

Colocalization of WT1 and cell proliferation reveals conserved mechanisms in temperature-dependent sex determination.

Journal article Genesis · April 2003 Featured Publication During vertebrate development the gonad has two possible fates, the testis or the ovary. The choice between these fates is made by a variety of sex-determining mechanisms, from the sex-determining gene on the Y chromosome (Sry) in mammals, to nongenetic te ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pdgfr-alpha mediates testis cord organization and fetal Leydig cell development in the XY gonad.

Journal article Genes Dev · March 15, 2003 Featured Publication During testis development, the rapid morphological changes initiated by Sry require the coordinate integration of many signaling pathways. Based on the established role of the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) family of ligands and receptors in migrati ... Full text Link to item Cite

Disruption of testis cords by cyclopamine or forskolin reveals independent cellular pathways in testis organogenesis.

Journal article Dev Biol · June 15, 2002 Featured Publication Most studies to date indicate that the formation of testis cords is critical for proper Sertoli cell differentiation, inhibition of germ cell meiosis, and regulation of Leydig cell differentiation. However, the connections between these events are poorly u ... Full text Link to item Cite

Desert Hedgehog/Patched 1 signaling specifies fetal Leydig cell fate in testis organogenesis.

Journal article Genes Dev · June 1, 2002 Featured Publication Establishment of the steroid-producing Leydig cell lineage is an event downstream of Sry that is critical for masculinization of mammalian embryos. Neither the origin of fetal Leydig cell precursors nor the signaling pathway that specifies the Leydig cell ... Full text Link to item Cite

Divergent vascular mechanisms downstream of Sry establish the arterial system in the XY gonad.

Journal article Dev Biol · April 15, 2002 Featured Publication Although the primitive vasculature is identical in XX and XY genital ridges until 11.5 days postcoitum (dpc), by 12.5 dpc the XY gonad develops a distinct vasculature. This male-specific vasculature, which includes the development of a large coelomic vesse ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cellular and molecular pathways regulating mammalian sex determination.

Journal article Recent Prog Horm Res · 2002 Featured Publication In mammals, sex is determined by the presence or absence of a single gene on the Y chromosome, Sry. Sry, a member of the high mobility group family of transcription factors, is required to initiate male-specific pathways and repress female-specific pathway ... Full text Link to item Cite

Defective mesonephric cell migration is associated with abnormal testis cord development in C57BL/6J XY(Mus domesticus) mice.

Journal article Dev Biol · September 1, 2000 Featured Publication During the critical period of mouse sex determination, mesenchymal cells migrate from the mesonephros into the adjacent developing testis. This process is thought to initiate cord development and is dependent on Sry. The presence of Sry, however, does not ... Full text Link to item Cite

Migration of mesonephric cells into the mammalian gonad depends on Sry.

Journal article Mech Dev · June 1999 Featured Publication In mammals, the primary step in male sex determination is the initiation of testis development which depends on the expression of the Y-linked testis determining gene, Sry. The mechanisms by which Sry controls this process are unknown. Studies showed that ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sry and the testis: molecular pathways of organogenesis.

Journal article J Exp Zool · August 1, 1998 Featured Publication The gene Sry acts as a switch, initiating pathways leading to the differentiation of a testis rather than an ovary from the indifferent gonad (genital ridge) in mammals. The early events following Sry expression include rapid changes in the topographical o ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sex in the 90s: SRY and the switch to the male pathway.

Journal article Annu Rev Physiol · 1998 Featured Publication In mammals the male sex determination switch is controlled by a single gene on the Y chromosome, SRY. SRY encodes a protein with an HMG-like DNA-binding domain, which probably acts as a local organizer of chromatin structure. It is believed to regulate dow ... Full text Link to item Cite

Male-specific cell migration into the developing gonad.

Journal article Curr Biol · December 1, 1997 Featured Publication BACKGROUND: The gene Sry acts as a developmental switch, initiating a pathway of gene activity that leads to the differentiation of testis rather than ovary from the indifferent gonad (genital ridge) in mammalian embryos. The early events following Sry exp ... Full text Link to item Cite

Establishment and characterization of conditionally immortalized cells from the mouse urogenital ridge.

Journal article J Cell Sci · May 1996 Featured Publication Cell cultures from the urogenital ridge have been established to facilitate the study of the regulation and downstream interactions of Sry in mammalian sex determination. Cells have been explanted from transgenic mice carrying a temperature sensitive SV40 ... Full text Link to item Cite

Three-dimensional structure of the developing mouse genital ridge.

Journal article Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci · November 29, 1995 Featured Publication We are interested in understanding how the field of cells which forms the gonad arises, and how the testis-determining gene, Sry, controls morphogenesis of a testis within this field of cells. To appreciate changes in the three-dimensional structure of the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Expression of Sry, the mouse sex determining gene.

Journal article Development · June 1995 Featured Publication In the mouse, Sry is expressed by germ cells in the adult testis and by somatic cells in the genital ridge. Transcripts in the former exist as circular RNA molecules of 1.23 kb, which are unlikely to be efficiently translated. We have used RNase protection ... Full text Link to item Cite

Y353/B: a candidate multiple-copy spermiogenesis gene on the mouse Y chromosome.

Journal article Mamm Genome · April 1994 Featured Publication There is evidence from Y Chromosome (Chr) deletion mapping that there is a gene on the long arm of the mouse Y Chr that is needed for the normal development of the sperm head. Since mice with partial Y long arm deletions show incomplete penetrance of the s ... Full text Link to item Cite

Deletion of Y chromosome sequences located outside the testis determining region can cause XY female sex reversal.

Journal article Nat Genet · November 1993 Featured Publication An approach designed to map and generate mutations in the region of the short arm of the mouse Y chromosome, known to be involved in sex determination and spermatogenesis, is described. This relies on homologous Yp-Sxra pairing and asymmetrical exchange wh ... Full text Link to item Cite

Circular transcripts of the testis-determining gene Sry in adult mouse testis.

Journal article Cell · June 4, 1993 Featured Publication Sry is expressed at higher levels in the adult testis, where no function has been determined, than in the genital ridge, its critical site of action. cDNA and 5' RACE clones isolated from testis or from Sry-transfected cell lines have an unusual structure, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Expression of a candidate sex-determining gene during mouse testis differentiation.

Journal article Nature · November 29, 1990 Featured Publication The development of a eutherian mammal as a male is a consequence of testis formation in the embryo, which is thought to be initiated by a gene on the Y chromosome. In the absence of this gene, ovaries are formed and female characteristics develop. Sex dete ... Full text Link to item Cite

A gene mapping to the sex-determining region of the mouse Y chromosome is a member of a novel family of embryonically expressed genes.

Journal article Nature · July 19, 1990 Featured Publication A gene mapping to the sex-determining region of the mouse Y chromosome is deleted in a line of XY female mice mutant for Tdy, and is expressed at a stage during male gonadal development consistent with its having a role in testis determination. This gene i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Long- and short-lived murine hematopoietic stem cell clones individually identified with retroviral integration markers.

Journal article Blood · June 15, 1990 Featured Publication The proliferative longevity of totipotent hematopoietic stem cells (THSC) is a limiting factor in normal hematopoiesis and in therapy by cell- or gene-replacement, but has not yet been ascertained. We have followed the long-term fate of individual clones o ... Link to item Cite

Neonatal W-mutant mice are favorable hosts for tracking development of marked hematopoietic stem cells.

Journal article Exp Hematol · September 1989 Featured Publication Neonatal unirradiated mice of W-mutant genotypes, with a hematopoietic stem cell defect and anemia, were injected i.v. with normal fetal liver hematopoietic cells. Efficient, long-term engraftment occurred as a result of the competitive advantage to the do ... Link to item Cite

Clonal contributions of small numbers of retrovirally marked hematopoietic stem cells engrafted in unirradiated neonatal W/Wv mice.

Journal article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · June 1989 Featured Publication Mice were repopulated with small numbers of retrovirally marked hematopoietic cells operationally definable as totipotent hematopoietic stem cells, without engraftment of cells at later stages of hematopoiesis, in order to facilitate analysis of stem cell ... Full text Link to item Cite