Uppsala, Sweden. New research identifies hundreds of biological differences between the sexes when it comes to gene expression in the cerebral cortex of humans and other primates. New findings show that some of these differences arose a very long time ago and have been preserved throughout primate evolution.

There are fundamental questions for neuroscience regarding the relative contribution of genetics versus environment to behavioral differences between the sexes. Examples of the physical, and more obvious, gender [N1] differences include average body size and weight, and genitalia design.

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An Evolutionarily Conserved Sexual Signature in the Primate Brain. Björn Reinius, Peter Saetre, Jennifer A. Leonard, Ran Blekhman, Roxana Merino-Martinez, Yoav Gilad, Elena Jazin. (2008). PLoS Genetics 4(6): e1000100. doi: 10.1371 / journal.pgen.1000100 [ Download PDF ]

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A team of researchers from Sweden and the United States. Uppsala Universitet, Karolinska Institutet, and The University of Chicago conducted a high precision inventory of the differences in gene expression between the sexes [N2]. This particular study did not determine functiona

Worcester, MA, USA. A new technique that improves the ability of scientists to target individual genes for inactivation has broad potential implications for basic science research and treatment. Two scientific teams working with zebrafish — commonly used as a model organism in biomedical research — to develop a method to create and deliver a tailor-made “restriction enzyme” that inactivates a specific gene in the embryo.

“The best way to figure out what a gene does in an organism is to replace it with a non-functional version, breed the individual, and then look at the offspring to see what’s wrong with them,” said Laurie Tompkins, Ph.D., who oversees genetic mechanisms grants at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

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Targeted gene inactivation in zebrafish using engineered zinc-finger nucleases. Xiangdong Meng, Marcus B Noyes, Lihua J Zhu, Nathan D Lawson & Scot A Wolfe. Nature Biotechnology. Online: 25 May 2008. doi: 10.1038 / nbt1398

Leiden, The Netherlands. Geneticists have for the first time determined the DNA sequence of a woman. Geneticists of Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) determined the DNA sequence of Dr. Marjolein Kriek, a clinical geneticist at LUMC. New insights into human genetic diversity are expected from the research. Following an in-depth analysis, the research team will publish the particulars of Dr. Kriek's sequence, consisent with protections in place for privacy-sensitive findings.

“If anyone could properly consider the ramifications of knowing his or her sequence, it is a clinical geneticist,” says professor Gert-Jan B van Ommen, leader of the LUMC team and director of the Centre for Medical Systems Biology (CMSB), a center of the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI).

Van Ommen says that "… while women don’t have a Y-chromosome, they have two X-chromosomes. As the X-chromosome is present as a single copy in ha