Previous studies identified Sox9 as a critical mediator of prostate development but the precise stage when Sox9 acts had not been determined. A genetic approach was used to delete Sox9 from mouse urogenital sinus epithelium (UGE) prior to prostate specification. All prostatic bud types (anterior, dorsolateral and ventral) were stunted in Sox9 conditional knockouts (cKOs) even though the number of prostatic buds did not differ from that of controls. We concluded that Sox9 is required for prostatic bud elongation and compared control male, control female, Sox9 cKO male and Sox9 cKO female UGE transcriptomes to identify potential molecular mediators. We identified 702 sex-dependent and 95 Sox9-dependent genes. Thirty-one genes were expressed in both a sex- and Sox9-dependent pattern. A comparison of Sox9 cKO female vs control female UGE transcriptomes revealed 74 Sox9-dependent genes, some of which also function in cell migration. SOX9 regulates, directly or indirectly, a largely different profile of genes in male and female UGE. Eighty-three percent of Sox9-dependent genes in male UGE were not Sox9-dependent in female UGE. Only 16 genes were Sox9-dependent in the UGE of both sexes and seven had cell migration functions. These results support the notion that Sox9 promotes cell migration activities needed for prostate ductal elongation.

之前的研究已确定Sox9是前列腺发育的关键介质，但尚未确定Sox9发挥作用的确切阶段。在前列腺特异化之前，使用遗传方法从小鼠泌尿生殖窦上皮 (UGE) 中删除Sox9 。所有前列腺芽类型（前侧、背外侧和腹侧）在Sox9条件性敲除 (cKO)中均发育不良，尽管前列腺芽的数量与对照组没有差异。我们得出结论，前列腺芽伸长需要Sox9 ，并比较对照男性、对照女性、 Sox9 cKO 男性和Sox9 cKO 女性 UGE 转录组，以确定潜在的分子介质。我们鉴定了 702 个性别依赖性基因和 95 个Sox9依赖性基因。三十一个基因以性别和Sox9依赖性模式表达。Sox9 cKO 雌性与对照雌性 UGE 转录组的比较揭示了 74 个Sox9依赖性基因，其中一些也在细胞迁移中发挥作用。SOX9 直接或间接调节男性和女性 UGE 中截然不同的基因谱。男性 UGE 中83% 的Sox9依赖性基因在女性 UGE 中不依赖于Sox9。在两性的 UGE 中，只有 16 个基因依赖于Sox9 ，其中 7 个基因具有细胞迁移功能。这些结果支持Sox9促进前列腺导管伸长所需的细胞迁移活动的观点。