Abstract
The vast majority of animal species are bisexual, and in many cases the decision, if an embryo develops to a male or female, is made by the genome. Sex determination genes initiate a series of developmental processes that establish the male or female phenotype. The genetic scenarios how sex can be determined are of extraordinary diversity and have provoked questions on the evolution and maintenance of bisexuality. One of the unsolved problem is, why such a simple and highly conserved biological phenomenon as the existence of males and females should be controlled by so different mechanisms like the ratio of X chromosomes to autosomes for instance in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the worm Caenorhabditis elegans or the presence of a Y chromosome in male mammals.
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Hornung, U. et al. (2004). DMRT Genes and Sex Determination in Medaka. In: Schmid, M., Nanda, I. (eds) Chromosomes Today. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1033-6_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1033-6_3
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