Abstract
IN mammals the presence of testes is required for male sexual differentiation of the embryo. By contrast, embryonic ovaries seem to play only a minor part in the determination of the female phenotype1. Cytogenetic evidence has made it clear that the mammalian Y-chromosome is strongly male determining; that is, directly or indirectly, it causes the differentiation of the indifferent gonad into a testis. Ovaries are formed even if only a single X-chromosome (and no other sex chromosome) is present2, although in human embryos such ovaries will degenerate in the absence of a second X-chromosome. The Y-chromosome is therefore the basic sex differentiator in mammals3: if present, it determines testes and a male phenotype, while in its absence the embryo will develop into a female.
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MITTWOCH, U., DELHANTY, J. & BECK, F. Growth of Differentiating Testes and Ovaries. Nature 224, 1323–1325 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1038/2241323a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2241323a0
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