Executive summary of The High Impact Factor (37.3) Publication from Amrita University

A team of eminent scientists from Japan and India have collaborated and made a significant effort to unravel the mysterious interplay between nature and the living world to sustain life on this planet, through a classic review article published recently in the prestigious journal of the American Physiological Society. In this article published in Physiological Reviews, a highly impact journal with an impact factor of 37.3, Dr. Yoshitaka Nagahama (Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, National Institute of Basic Biology, Japan), Dr. Tapas Chakraborty (South Ehime Fisheries Research Center, Ehime University, Japan) and Dr. Bindhu Paul- Prasanth (Center for Nanosciences & Molecular Medicine, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India), Dr. Kohei Ohta (Laboratory of Marine biology, Kyushu University, Japan) and Dr. Masaru Nakamura (Tropical Biosphere Research Center, University of Ryukyus, Japan) have made a comprehensive review of an extensive literature dealing with sex determination, sexual differentiation and sexual plasticity among vertebrates ranging from fishes to mammals, and come up with important postulates regarding the development and existence of the two different sexes, the male and female.

The ability to make a copy through reproduction is what demarcates the living world from the non-living world. The plants and animals on our planet make it happen mainly in two ways, asexual and sexual. In asexual reproduction, organisms make xerox copies of themselves, while in sexual reproduction organisms are provided a unique opportunity to prepare their species to adapt to the constantly changing environment through mixing and shuffling of genomes. Nature executes sexual mode of reproduction through division of members belonging to sexually reproducing species into two forms, male and female.

Humankind has always been curious regarding the biological differences between these two forms. Scientists involved in research on the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying sexually dichotomous development of organisms including humans, have thrown light into a myriad of strategies that enable organisms to attain two different sexual identities. This review is a comprehensive and meticulous analysis of 550 publications on sex determination research, in which the clinical highlights provided by the authors can contribute to the understanding of the evolutionary puzzles in speciation and species diversity. The important observations that this review has put forth are, (1) The constantly-evolving and devolving nature of sex determination as a biological process ensuring the survival fitness and biodiversity in this planet; (2) Sex determination is an interactive outcome of an individual with its environment; (3) Identification of self either as a male or female, as dictated by the chromosome constitution of an organism, is one of the goals of sex determination and sexual differentiation, which is indispensable for achieving reproductive success both at the individual and species levels.

Dr. Bindhu Paul-Prashanth is currently heading the Laboratory of Reproductive and Developmental Biology Group at the Center for Nanosciences & Molecular Medicine at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, and is the only author from India, who have contributed to this prestigious review article of the American Physiological Society, which is also a recommended study material in the reputed US universities, that provides the state-of-the-art coverage of timely issues in the physiological and biomedical sciences.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this Notification is solely by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeeth University. Jagranjosh.com bears no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the information. Individuals are therefore suggested to check the authenticity of the information.