Prenatal Sex Determination in Rodents

Using a list of prenatally expressed Y-chromosome-encoded genes from a recently published study,¹⁵ we were able to categorize the pup brains into male or female. The study identified these genes by comparing mRNA levels in different brain regions from human prenatal brain samples. In the current study, we assessed the expression of those genes using the rodent orthologues: USP9Y (Ubiquitin Specific Peptidase 9 Y-Linked), DDX3Y (DEAD-Box Helicase 3 Y-Linked), and UTY (Ubiquitously Transcribed Tetratricopeptide Repeat Containing, Y-Linked) and classified 14 samples as female and 16 samples as male (Table 1).