How Boys Become Boys (and Sometimes Girls)

[TreeFlower]

New research explains how three proteins conspire to determine an embryo's sex
By Nikhil Swaminathan

In research that could give doctors a way to reassign sex in cases of unclear gender, scientists report this week that they have figured out why some children with genes that should make them boys are instead born as girls.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-boys-become-boys-and&sc=rss

[Just Mandy]

Thats a great article. And there are some other good ones linked to it.

I found this in one of the links at the bottom "Going beyond X and Y":

Lately Vilain has been exploring molecular determinants of sex within the brain and whether they may be linked to gender identity. Despite classic dogma, he is certain that sex hormones do not drive neural development and behavioral differences on their own. SRY is expressed in the brain, he points out, suggesting that genes influence brain sexual differentiation directly. His lab has identified in mice 50 new gene candidates on multiple chromosomes for differential sex expression. Seven of them begin operating differently in the brain before gonads form. Vilain's group is testing these findings using mice and is collaborating with a clinic in Australia to study expression patterns of the sex-specific genes in transsexual people.

There was some discussion about this a couple of weeks ago.

Amanda

[TreeFlower]

Yea. They do a good job of linking related articles.  I was thinking about posting the others but I figured people would find them.  I'm just going to post the new stuff.