| In birds, male embryo the gonads develop bilateral testes, in which both left and right sides produce functional spermatozoa, whereas female embryo, only the left gonad develops into a functional ovary. Estrogen plays a key role in avian sex determination in both sexes by binding to the estrogen receptor (ER). Surprisingly, chicken estrogen receptor (cER) mRNA is expressed in both sexes; moreover; its expression is only expressed in the left male gonad. The present study aimed to localize ER protein in the left gonad of male quail embryo using immunohistochemistry. The 8-day-old male quail embryos whose embryonic sex distinguished by gonadal morphology were studied. Histology of the left male gonad displayed thin cortex containing 1 to 2 layers of the... |
