John C Lucchesi, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Published online: January 2006
DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0005791
Sexual reproduction increases the number of different genetic constitutions that are present at each generation and that can be acted upon by natural selection. The genetic information required for the differentiation of fertilized eggs into individuals of different sexes is contained on a special pair of chromosomes: the sex chromosomes.
Keywords: chromosomes; sex; sex determination; X chromosome; Y chromosome
| Further Reading | |
| Graves AM, Wakefield MJ and Toder R (1998) The origin and evolution of the pseudoautosomal region of human sex chromosomes. Human Molecular Genetics 7(13): 1991–1996. | |
| Kelley RL and Kuroda MI (2000) The role of chromosomal RNAs in marking the X for dosage compensation. Current Opinion in Genetics and Development 10(5): 555–561. | |
| McElreavey K and Fellous M (1999) Sex determination and the Y chromosome. American Journal of Medical Genetics 89(4): 176–185. | |
| Meller VH (2000) Dosage compensation: making 1X equal 2X. Trends in Cell Biology 10(2): 54–59. | |
| Meyer BJ (2000) Sex in the worm-counting and compensating X-chromosome dose. Trends in Genetics 16(6): 247–253. | |
| Pannuti A and Lucchesi JC (2000) Recycling to remodel: evolution of dosage-compensation complexes. Current Opinion in Genetics and Development 10(6): 644–650. | |
Copyright © 2000-2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., or related companies. All rights reserved.
