ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2014
Sexually dimorphic expression of Mafb regulates masculinization of the embryonic urethral formation.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Unraveling the Androgen Receptor's Role in Hypospadias: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Pooled it
- MicroRNA-130a-3p Targets the Androgen-Related Transcription FactorPediatric discovery · 2026Article
- Intermittent exposure to high ambient heat during the second half of gestation in mice causes mild alterations of reproductive endpoints in male embryos.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
- NR2F2 regulation of interstitial cell fate in the embryonic mouse testis and its impact on differences of sex development.Nature communications · 2025Article
- MAFB-mediated CEBPA regulated human urothelium growth through Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.Genes & diseases · 2025Article
- Androgen receptor antagonist flutamide modulates estrogen receptor alpha expression in distinct regions of the hypospadiac rat penis.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Article
- An extragenital cell population contributes to urethra closure during mouse penis development.Science advances · 2024Article
- Dimorphic Regulation of theAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Streamlined identification of clinically and functionally relevant genetic regulators of lower-tract urogenital development.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- An extra-genital cell population contributes to urethra closure during mouse penis development.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Exploring Large MAF Transcription Factors: Functions, Pathology, and Mouse Models with Point Mutations.Genes · 2023Review
- Development of an in-vitro high-throughput screening system to identify modulators of genitalia development.PNAS nexus · 2023Article
- Androgen-regulatediScience · 2022Article
- Spatiotemporal map of key signaling factors during early penis development.Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists · 2022Review
- One Tool for Many Jobs: Divergent and Conserved Actions of Androgen Signaling in Male Internal Reproductive Tract and External Genitalia.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Review
- Sexual dimorphism through androgen signaling; from external genitalia to muscles.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Review
- Functional analysis of large MAF transcription factors and elucidation of their relationships with human diseases.Experimental animals · 2021Article
- Developmental and sexual dimorphic atlas of the prenatal mouse external genitalia at the single-cell level.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Sexual fate of murine external genitalia development: Conserved transcriptional competency for male-biased genes in both sexes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Masculinization of external genitalia is an essential process in the formation of the male reproductive system. Prominent characteristics of this masculinization are the organ size and the sexual differentiation of the urethra. Although androgen is a pivotal inducer of the masculinization, the regulatory mechanism under the control of androgen is still unknown. Here, we address this longstanding question about how androgen induces masculinization of the embryonic external genitalia through the identification of the v-maf avian musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma oncogene homolog B (Mafb) gene. Mafb is expressed prominently in the mesenchyme of male genital tubercle (GT), the anlage of external genitalia. MAFB expression is rarely detected in the mesenchyme of female GTs. However, exposure to exogenous androgen induces its mesenchymal expression in female GTs. Furthermore, MAFB expression is prominently down-regulated in male GTs of androgen receptor (Ar) KO mice, indicating that AR signaling is necessary for its expression. It is revealed that Mafb KO male GTs exhibit defective embryonic urethral formation, giving insight into the common human congenital anomaly hypospadias. However, the size of Mafb KO male GTs is similar with that of wild-type males. Moreover, androgen treatment fails to induce urethral masculinization of the GTs in Mafb KO mice. The current results provide evidence that Mafb is an androgen-inducible, sexually dimorphic regulator of embryonic urethral masculinization.
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