[Genetic support for gonadal development]

Abstract

The problem of the sexes appearance has concerned the mankind since the oldest times. The paper surveys the theories that appeared during the ages, from Plato to the beginning of the 20th century when the spermatozoon was differentiated from the ovule, the chromosomes were identified and their importance for determining the sex was recognized. The paper reports on the role of the HY antigen--discovered in 1955 by Eichwald and Simser--and its mode of action, corroborating the control structural gene. The differentiating disturbances of the gonads are reviewed: the disturbances in the development of the male sex, its hormonal and enzymatic bases The authors also discuss the theories trying to explain the genetic mutations that have a diminishing effect on the estrogenic synthesis or on the appearance of the resistance to estrogens, emphasizing that the estrogenic effect is essential for the embryo life. The sexual development is too complex to be due only to the sex chromosomes. Its most important stages are determined by the genes located both on the autosomal chromosomes and on the sexual ones.