HISTORY OF STUDIES ON SEX DETERMINATION

Abstract

One of the fundamental questions that intrigued and fascinated humanity since ancient times has been how the differences between sexes are determined. Even ancient philosophers tried to explain the nature of sex. Nevertheless, the description of mechanisms of sex determination was possible only owing to scientific methods developed through recent centuries that reached a summit in XX century. Among the milestones in studies on the sex determination, one should mention: the discovery of the X chromosome in XIX century, discovery that X and Y chromosomes are involved in sex determination at the beginning of XX century, the indication that Y chromosome determines the male sex in human (the 50s of XX century), and the discovery of SRY gene determining male sex in mammals (1990).