Division of Reproductive Biology

Faculty

Research Summary

Fish exhibit a range of gonadal forms from gonochorism to several types of hermaphroditism, thus providing an excellent animal model to study the molecular mechanisms of sex determination/differentiation and gametogenesis in vertebrates. Our research using several teleost fishes focuses on (1) the identification of regulators and steroidal mediators involved in sex determination, gonadal sex differentiation and gametogenesis, and (2) the mechanisms of synthesis and action of these mediators.

Website

• Lab Website (Japanese only)

Reports

• Annual Report 2008(PDF)

Selected Publications

Tokumoto, T., Yamashita, M., Tokumoto, M., Katsu, Y., Horiguchi, R., Kajiura, H., and Nagahama, Y.(1997). Initiation of cyclin B degradation by the 26S proteasome upon egg activation. J. Cell Biol. 22, 1313-1322.

Tanaka, M., Kinoshita, M., Kobayashi, D., and Nagahama, Y. (2001). Establishment of medaka (Oryzias latipes) transgenic lines with the expression of green fluorescent protein fluorescence exclusively in germ cells: A useful model to monitor germ cells in a live vertebrate. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98, 2544-2549.

Matsuda, M., Nagahama, Y., Shinomiya, A., Sato, T., Matsuda, C., Kobayashi, T., Morrey, C.E., Shibata, N., Asakawa, S., Shimizu, N., Hori, H., Hamaguchi, S., and Sakaizumi, M. (2002). A Y-specific, DMdomain gene, DMY, is required for male development in the medaka (Oryzias latipes). Nature 417, 559-563.

Tokumoto, T., Tokumoto, M., Horiguchi, R., Ishikawa, K., and Nagahama, Y. (2004). Diethylstilbestrol induces fish oocyte maturation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 3686-3690.

Matsuda, M., Shinomiya, S., Kinoshita, M., Suzuki, A., Kobayashi, T., Paul-Prasanth, B., Lau, E.L., Hamaguchi, S., Sakaizumi, M., and Nagahama, Y. (2007). DMY gene induces male development in genetically female (XX) medaka fish. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 3865-3870.