Topic 8

Sex Determination and Sex
Linkage
Sex determination
• It is the process of finding out male and female progeny from the
given individual.
• A. Mechanisms of sex determination in

animals:
• Environmental: In some animals, zygote
does not differ genetically for sex
differentiation. In such cases sexual
differentiation is determined by
environmental factors. Eg., larvae of sea
worm, Bonelia.
• Chromosomal: Sex chromosome or allosome differs in number or
kind between the male and female individuals of the same species and
is involved in sex determination. Autosomes are chromosomes other
than sex chromosomes; their kind and number is the same in male and
female of a species. There are two types of sex chromosomes: X
chromosome and Y chromosome. X chromosome occurs in both male
and female individuals but in different numbers. Eg., in human, male
has one but female has two X chromosomes. In most animals and
plants it has the genes for femaleness. Y chromosome occurs either in
the males (man, rodents, Drosophila) or females (birds, reptiles) of a
species, but never in both sexes. Usually the major portion of the Y
chromosome is genetically inactive, it may or may not determine
maleness depending on the species. The different mechanisms of
chromosomal sex determination may be grouped into 5 classes and
these are:
– XX female and XO male: eg., grass hoppers, many other insects.
– XO female and XX male: eg., fumea.
– XX female and XY male: eg., common among animals, human, Drosophila.
– XX male and XY female: eg., birds, reptiles, silk worm.
– Diploid (2n) female and haploid (n) male: eg., honey bee, ants, termites.
Origin of unusual diploid males in
Bracon hebetor and honey bee
Sex is determined by a gene X with multiple alleles.
Homozygotes for this gene develops into males.
Genic
The genic balance theory states that the sex of an individual is determined by
a balance between the genes for maleness and those for femaleness present
in the individual. In drosophila genes for maleness are present in autosomes,
while those for femaleness are located in the X chromosome.
Single gene affecting sex differentiation
• Eg., autosomal recessive transformer (tra) gene of Drosophila.
Sex determination by Y linked genes
• In mammals, some amphibians and some plants, Y

chromosome is essential for the development of maleness.
In human; XO, XX, XXX, XXXX, individuals develop into
female phenotype but XY, XXY, XXXY, XXXXY develop the
male phenotype. XO condition produces Turner’s syndrome
and XXY develops Klinefelter’s syndrome. Both Klinefelter
and Turner syndromes are sterile.\
• Klinefelter is developed by fertilization of XX egg by a Y

sperm or fertilization of X egg by XY sperm. Generally,
Turner syndrome is developed by fertilization of egg
containing no X chromosome with a sperm having X
chromosome. Turner female has rudimentary sexual organ
and mammary glands.
Mechanisms of sex determination in plants
• Chromosomal: In plants, the following chromosomal sex determination
mechanisms are found.
• XX female XY male
• This mechanism is found in Cannabis, Salix, Silene, Rumex, Bryonia
and Humulux.
• XY female XX male
• This mechanism is found in Fragraris. This system operates like birds.
• XX female XY1Y2 male
• This mechanism is found in Rumex, Humulux.
• XX female XO male
• This mechanism is found in Dioscorea, and Vassisneria This system
operates like grass hoppers.
Sex linkage
The association between a character and the sex during
inheritance is known as sex linkage. The concerned gene is
located in the X chromosome. In human several genetic
diseases are sex linked.
Causes of sex linkage:
• Location of a gene in the X chromosome and
• the absence of its allele in the Y chromosome
Some examples of sex linked characters are as:
• White eye in Drosophila (recessive gene X linked)
• Colour blindness in human (X linked recessive)
• Hemophilia in human (recessive sex linked allele)
• Barred feather patterns in chickens (dominant sex linked)
• Hypertrichosis (Y linked)
Morgan Provided Evidence for the Linkage of
Several X-linked Genes
• The first direct evidence of linkage came from

studies of Thomas Hunt Morgan
• Morgan investigated several traits that followed an
X-linked pattern of inheritance
– Body color
– Eye color
– Wing length
Extended Mendelian Inheritance
Patterns
• Sex-linked
– inheritance of genes on that are unique to a sex chromosomes
– pseudoautosomal genes – genes on both sex chromosomes
appear to be on autosomes
• Sex-influenced
– An allele is expressed differently in each sex. Behaving
dominantly in one sex and recessively in the other
• Sex-limited
– An allele is only expressed in one or the other sex
Sex limited traits
• A trait, which is expressed in one of the

two sexes only known as sex limited trait.
Sex influenced character
Alleles of the genes governing such a trait show opposite
dominance relationship in the males and females of the
species. Eg., baldness in a man, horns in sheep,
spotting in cattle (red and white dominant in female,
mahogany and white dominant in male), index finger in
man.
Characteristics of sex linked inheritance
• The frequency of individuals showing a recessive sex
linked trait is markedly higher in the heterogametic sex
than in the homogametic sex. Eg., red-green colour
blindness in human.
• Ordinarily, genes governing sex linked traits are not
transmitted from male parents to their male progenies
directly. Eg., white eye gene (w) in Drosophila.
• Sex linked genes are not located in the Y chromosome.
• A male transmits its sex linked genes to all its daughters
and then back to males. Such an inheritance pattern is
known as criss-cross inheritance. It is explained with the
help of following example.
Non disjunction
• The failure of a chromosome pair (during anaphase I of meiosis) or
of sister chromatids of a chromosome (during anaphase II of meiosis
and anaphase of mitosis) to separate during anaphase; as a result,
they pass to the same pole leading to the production of n+1 and n-1
gametes (meiosis) or 2n+1 and 2n-1 daughter cells (mitosis).
• Eg., vermilion eye colour in Drosophila. Recessive gene ‘v’ cause
vermilion eye colour
Attached X chromosome in Drosophila
• Eg., yellow body colour in Drosophila, caused by recessive gene, y.
• Regular male to male transmission of the dominant allele of yellow
body gene due to the attached X chromosome in Drosophila.

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Sex Determination and Sex

• A. Mechanisms of sex determination in

• In mammals, some amphibians and some plants, Y

• Klinefelter is developed by fertilization of XX egg by a Y

• The first direct evidence of linkage came from

• A trait, which is expressed in one of the

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