Genetics and Genomics of Early Gonad Development

In eutherian organisms, prenatal gonad development occurs spontaneously with spatiotemporal precision, resulting in the formation of the germinal organs. The development of gonads is unique among other organ primordia because it preserved an evolutionarily conserved bipotency to differentiate into entirely distinct organs in structure and functions, ovary or testis. Prepared to serve as the future site of gamete production, gonad development progressed onward with sexual dimorphism, but its fate was only determined as a resultant to complex gene interactions. Our chapter reviews the genetics in the early embryonic gonad development in male mice aided with functional information mined from our publicly available GonadSAGE serial transcriptome profile by matching for genes and key signaling pathway changes during gonad development. In fact, the current chapter reviews the preparation for male-specific development to deviate from the default female program in the early indifferent gonads from embryonic day E10.5 to E12.5.