The GMCVB’s Tourism Sales team is pleased to extend you the opportunity to join us in France for a 3 city Sales Mission to Lyon, Nice and Paris from April 12-16, 2010. We will host three workshops in each city as well as conduct sales calls. France remains Miami’s number 3 source market from Europe with 190,470 visitors from France in 2008. April is a good time to target the travel trade to promote our tropical and cosmopolitan destination for Summer 2010 traffic and beyond. This mission also further promotes the destination to support the incremental air lift into Miami International Airport this coming Spring and Summer. Beginning March 19th, Air Europa begins new air service into Miami 3 times per week from Paris/Madrid/Miami. Beginning June 11th, CorsairFly begins new service into Miami 2 times per week from Orly/Miami. For further information about this mission and to register, please contact Gisela Marti, Associate Vice President of Tourism Sales at GMarti@MiamiandBeaches.com.

A team led by Frédéric Veyrunes, CNRS researcher at the Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution in Montpellier, working in collaboration with biologists from the Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle in Lyon and the IRD, have just identified this unexpected case of sex determination. These scientists have demonstrated a particular chromosomal rearrangement on the X chromosome of this mouse. This work should provide a clearer understanding of how classic sex determination functions in mammals.

The research is published in the 7 April issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

In the great majority of mammals, sex determination follows a simple rule: an XX chromosome arrangement defines a female while an XY arrangement produces a male. However, some situations may deviate from this principle, in which case reference is made to chromosomal anomalies that most generally cause sterility. On the Y chromosome, sex is determined by the presence or absence of a single gene called Sry. Located in 1990, this gene initiates the development of male characteristics; without this gene, the gonads become ovaries.

However, some mammal species do not obey this rule. Until now, only seven cases of atypical sex determination had been observed, all in rodents. The team coordinated by Frédéric Veyrunes has just identified a new case, the first to be described for 30 years, in Mus minutoides, an African pygmy mouse species which is particularly interesting as it is very closely related to the house mouse, the principal mammal model used in biology. By studying different populations of African Mus minutoides, the researchers observed a very high proportion of fertile females carrying XY chromosomes (between 74% and 100%).