XY sex-determination system
The XY sex-determination system is a well-known sex-determination system. It is found in human beings and other mammals. In the XY sex-determination system, females have two of the same kind of sex chromosome (XX), while males have two distinct sex chromosomes (XY). Some species (including humans) have a gene SRY on the Y chromosome that determines maleness; others (such as the fruit fly) use the presence of two X chromosomes to determine femaleness. SRY is not the only male-determining gene in mammals, or even the most common: most non-primate mammals use a different Y-chromosome gene, UBE1, for this purpose. Also, two species of "mole voles", Ellobius tancrei and E. lutescens, have lost the Y chromosome entirely. In one species, both sexes have unpaired X chromosomes; in the other, both females and males have XX. The XY sex determination system was first described independently by Dr. Nettie Stevens and Edmund Beecher Wilson in 1905.
See also chromosome, for information on abnormalities of the XY sex-determination systemintersexual for information on variations in human sexual formssexual differentiation, (human)testis-determining factorBarr bodyY-chromosomal Adam
External links Sex Determination and Differentiation SRY: Sex determination from the National Center for Biotechnology Information
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