I'd read all the articles involving same-sex reproduction, just like parthenogenesis and iPS cell. Last year, there was a huge shocking discovery in Japan. The scientists observed the female medaka (rice fish). They said there was a key gene, called foxl3, in germ cells. Usually germ cells can be turned into sperm and egg. But when the scientists suppressed foxl3 in female medaka, it produced sperm in its ovaries, rather than eggs. The sperm produced in ovaries, has larger amount than the eggs. What a shocking fact that the sperm was normally functioned and fertilized the eggs of another female fish, so it can produce healthy offspring.What I conclude here is, this body of female medaka is still female but there's "male" inside it. That means, the body is independent of the germ cells.
The same experiment also happened in mice. A female mice lacks the same key gene as medaka, called foxl2 and the other called wnt4.This caused the ovaries had transdifferentiated into testis and produced either spermatogonia or testosteron(I don't know which one is true). foxl2 is different than foxl3 because it holds somatic cells' fate, not the germ cells'.
The question is: can it be implemented on human and the other mammals in the future? I don't know but I hope so.
last edited at Jul 4, 2016 8:18PM
