Bar-Ilan University researchers use CRISPR tool to alter Enh13 switch controlling Sox9 gene, causing XX mice to develop as males; study may help explain other genetic mutations ...
Gonen laid the groundwork of her research by saying that when people talk about sex, “many people have the tendency to confuse biological sex with gender and with sexual orientation, but those are actually three different pillars or layers.”
Sex determination is a process that is “fully biological,” and it “all happens during embryonic development, giving rise to males or females.”
"We understand much of it, but not all of it,” she said.
The next issue is gender, she said, which may have a biological trait, “but we don’t have really good tools to study that with mice.”
“No mouse will come and tell me, ‘Look, I’m a female, but I feel like I’m a male,'” she said. “Those are things that are really hard to study, but we know they are there.”
She said that one in 100 children and adults around the world, including Israel, will feel like they don’t match their biological sex.
Finally, the last pillar is sexual orientation.
“Most males are attracted to females and females are attracted to males, but you can have females attracted to females and males attracted to males. We know that this also exists in the animal kingdom, but it’s harder to study. Mice won’t say who they’re very attracted to.”
Full article https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-a-switch-of-a-letter-in-dna-dark-matter-israeli-scientists-change-sex-of-mouse/
And for those who can understand the language, this is the paper the artaicle is based on
A single-nucleotide enhancer mutation overrides chromosomal sex to drive XX male development
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-71328-9