History of The Research on Sex Determination

Abstract

Since the beginning of the humanity, people were fascinated by sex and intrigued by how the differences between sexes are determined. Ancient philosophers and middle age scholars proposed numerous fantastic explanations for the origin of sex differences in people and animals. However, only the development of the modern scientific methods allowed us to find, on the scientific ground, the right answers to these questions. In this review article, we describe the history of these discoveries, and which major discoveries allowed the understanding of the origin of sex and molecular and cellular basis of the differentiation of male and female sex characteristics during embryo development and in the adult.