Turn stem cells into eggs

Black dot salmon. ( Photo Flyfishalberta ) Scientists have tricked male fish cells - which are programmed to become sperm - to convert sex into eggs.

This technique could one day be used to quickly create animals with desirable traits, speeding up breeding programs and helping to restore the populations of rare and endangered species.

Scientists have known for a long time that some fish are sexually transsexual, either arbitrary or by exposure to steroids. This led them to hypothesize that a group of cells in normal males developed into sperm, called spermatogonia , possibly stem cells with the potential to become sperm or eggs.

To test this hypothesis, scientists isolated spermatogonia from the testicles of mature black-spotted salmon and transplanted them into newly hatched salmon of both sexes. In newly hatched males, grafted cells develop into sperm, while in females, they turn into eggs.

Currently, scientists continue to find out whether these eggs can turn back into sperm.

The study was carried out by the scientific team of Tokyo University, Japan.

T. An