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Mammalian DMRTs: Structure, function and relationship with cancer

LI Hai-Long¹, ZOU Zi-Cong¹, FANG Chi¹, ZHENG Yi-Ping¹, GUO Xiao-Ming¹, YANG Wei-Hong^2,*

¹ Department of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China；²Department of Forensic Medicine, College of Basic Medicine, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China

Abstract

DMRT, a gene family related to sexual determination, encodes a large group of transcription factors (DMRTs) with the double-sex and mab-3 (DM) domain (except for DMRT8), which is able to bind to and regulate DNAs. Current studies have shown that the DMRT gene family plays a critical role in the development of sexual organs (such as gender differentiation, gonadal development, germ cell development, etc.) as well as extrasexual organs (such as musculocartilage development, nervous system development, etc.). Additionally, it has been suggested that DMRTs may be involved in the cancer development and progression (such as prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, etc.). This review summarizes the research progress about the mammalian DMRTs’ structure, function and its critical role in cancer development, progression and therapy (mainly in human and mice), which suggests that DMRT gene could be a candidate gene in the study of tumor formation and therapeutic strategy.

Key words: DMRTs; zinc finger; sexual organs and extrasexual organs; cancer

Received: 　　Accepted:

Corresponding author: 杨卫红　　E-mail: yangweihong@zzu.edu.cn

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2023.0014

Citing This Article：

LI Hai-Long, ZOU Zi-Cong, FANG Chi, ZHENG Yi-Ping, GUO Xiao-Ming, YANG Wei-Hong. Mammalian DMRTs: Structure, function and relationship with cancer. Acta Physiol Sin 2023; 75 (2): 269-278 (in Chinese with English abstract).