Dr. Margaret McCarthy collaborated
with Bridget Nugent, PhD, now a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania to
investigate how gender is determined in the brain. They discovered that
inhibiting DNA methyltransferases or Dnmts, which modify DNA to repress gene
expression, has powerful effects. Typically, there is a designated time frame
during gestation in which the brain takes on male or female characteristics. The
understanding has been that once this window closed, it could not be reopened. McCarthy
and Nugent injected Dnmt inhibitors into a specific region known as the
preoptic area, or POA. In every species that's been studied, including humans,
the POA plays a key role in governing male sexual behavior. What happened? Part
4 tomorrow.
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