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. 2016 Sep 8;14(9):e1002553. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002553

Fig 8. Sexual fate change in DKO germ cells in ovary.

Fig 8

In the ovary, two signaling pathways are involved in germ cell fate determination; one is an RA-Stra8 pathway that initiates meiosis and the other is a SMAD4 pathway that is activated via a currently unknown factor. In the absence of SMAD4, germ cells fail to proceed through normal meiosis and fail to make any oocytes. SMAD4 acts in germ cells cell-autonomously and regulates the fate of female germ cells because loss of SMAD4 and STRA8 leads to the upregulation of Nodal and NANOS2 expression as well as other male-specific genes. In this situation, somatic cell fate was unchanged and germ cells in the DKO may determine their fate in a cell-autonomous manner or another common factor (X) from female somatic cells is also required.