![Decoding the shared genetic toolkit for male sex determination](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/tmb/2024/decoding-the-shared-ge.jpg)
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen have broken new ground by demonstrating that an HMG-box gene in brown algae is crucial for determining male sex. This breakthrough significantly expands our understanding of sex-determination mechanisms in eukaryotic organisms. Until now, master sex-determination genes had been identified in only a select number of vertebrates and plants.