About Lesson
- Environmental:
- In some animals, Zygote doesn’t differ genetically for sex determination.
- In such cases, Sexual differentiation is determined by environmental factors.
- Eg: Larvae of sea worm,
- 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.
- There are two types of chromosomes i.e., X and Y chromosome and appear in both male and female but in different number.
- Y chromosome occurs either in male and female but never in both.
- Usually, the major portion of the Y chromosome is genetically inactive and may or mayn’t determine maleness depending on the species.
- Genic:
- It 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.
- The strength of genes for maleness and femaleness is so balanced that when the number of X chromosome and that of autosomal sets is equal in an individual, develops into female.
- An individual develops into a male only when the no. of its X chromosome is exactly half the number of its autosomal sets.
- The ratio of X chromosome to its autosomal sets is known as sex index.
i.e. Sex index = No. of X chromosome/ No. of Autosomal sets = X/A.
Sex expression in drosophila
Ploidy |
No. of X chromosome |
No. of Autosomal sets |
Sex index (X/A) |
Sex expression |
2n |
3 |
2 |
3/2 |
Meta female |
3n |
4 |
3 |
4/3 |
Triploid metafemale |
4n |
4 |
4 |
4/4 |
Tetraploid female |
2n |
2 |
2 |
2/2 |
Female |
3n |
3 |
3 |
3/3 |
Triploid female |
4n |
3 |
4 |
¾ |
Tetraploid intersex |
2n |
1 |
2 |
½ |
Male |
4n |
2 |
4 |
2/4 |
Tetraploid male |
3n |
1 |
3 |
1/3 |
Triploid meta male |
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