Gene expression in sexually differentiating gonads of Xenopus laevis

The aim of this study was to study the gene expression profile in developing female and male gonads of Xenopus laevis at four stages: at the Nieuwkoop-Faber stage 50 (genital ridge), at NF53 (sex-determining period), NF56 (the onset of sexual differentiation), NF62 (gonads sexually differentiated). The tadpoles were genotyped to identify their genetic sex and then dissected at given stages and the gonads were isolated. RNA was extracted from the gonads and gene expression was analyzed using microarray.