Abstract
It has long been thought that sexual determination is an exceptionally complex, possibly incomprehensible process. This was particularly true of higher mammals including humans, where an organism may possess the karyotype, say of a male, but exhibit some of the characteristics of the female. Genetic disorders and artificial hormone therapy were known to give rise to phenotypic sex expression that did not reflect the sex chromosomal composition of the organism. Some degree of physical and psychological androgeny in humans is virtually universal, and in extreme cases, individuals exhibit physical characteristics of one sex but psychological and behavioral characteristics of the opposite sex. These observations emphasized the similarities and the extensive overlap that can occur between the male and female sexes. Every individual, regardless of sex, may possess the genetic potential to express the full complement of characteristics that typify both sexes.
We do not even in the least know the final cause of sexuality; why new beings should be produced by the union of the two sexual elements, instead of by a process of parthenogenesis...
The whole subject is as yet hidden in darkness.
Charles Darwin
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© 1984 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
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Saier, M.H., Jacobson, G.R. (1984). Sex Determination and the Interconversion of Mating Type. In: The Molecular Basis of Sex and Differentiation. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5260-3_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5260-3_12
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