Identification and expression of a factor of the DM family in the oyster Crassostrea gigas.

The Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas is a successive not systematic protandric hermaphrodite. Searching for an ortholog to Dmrt1, a conserved sex determinism factor, we have identified the first complete cDNA of a DM factor in Lophotrochozoa which we have called Cg-DMl (Crassostrea gigas DMRT-like). It is 359aa long, with the DM domain common to all the family factors, and one DMA domain specific to members such as Dmrt4 and Dmrt5.