Abstract
This chapter discusses the mechanism of sex determination in mammals. It is evident from the analysis of the sex determination pathway in non-mammals that there is a lack of mechanical or molecular conservation. Sex determination is one of the most diverse developmental pathways. Therefore, molecular data from these organisms cannot be extrapolated, for example, to clone mammalian sex-determining genes, or make predictions about the molecular interactions between the components of the sex-determining pathway. This situation contrasts with other developmental processes, such as body pattern formation that is controlled by homeobox gene clusters, where similarities in sequence, function, and structure are conserved between vertebrate and invertebrate embryos. However, at a superficial level, there are broad similarities between these sex-determining systems. The basic scheme consists of a signal, a key gene, and a few subordinate control genes. Insights into the principles underlying the process of mammalian sex determination may be gained from comparison with sex determination mechanisms in other taxonomic groups. The sex determination pathways of Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans are two of the best understood developmental regulatory pathways in eukaryotes. The mechanisms of regulation within the pathway are revealed by a combination of sophisticated genetic, molecular, and biochemical investigations.
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