Talk:Genetics of gender

Biology of gender or genetics of gender?
I see that there are a few other topics which touch on some information on genes which determine sex in humans too, but all the articles are very disparate and incomplete. For instance, one cannot study gender using non-human animals, but at the same time, any discoveries on sex-determination systems which were found using animal models should not be simply translated to how gender is shaped in humans. There is one article on the biology of gender which could be expanded to include a big section on the influence of genetics on human gender, but the problem is that genetic and biological factors are considered separately when dealing with factors which influence gender traits. I am still thinking what to do with this stub I created until now. If anyone has any suggestions, let's hear it. The goal would be to create a good article on what genetic studies on gender have revealed until now, because it seems this field is gaining ground, apart from other biological studies on gender (like studies on hormones and other biological non-genetic environmental factors). Aliasflavius (talk) 04:24, 13 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm still not seeing why this topic cannot adequately be dealt with in the Biology of gender article. Genetics are a part of biology. Flyer22 (talk) 19:54, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Why a separate article on genetics of gender is necessary
The study of gender from a genetic point of view is becoming a very hot topic in the scientific community and one which is increasingly studied as a field of its own (I have referenced one center for gender-based biology in the external links section). The predominant consensus until recently was that gender was the result of the XY-sex determining system, that is, if an organism had a Y chromosome, then it would develop as male, otherwise if it had two X chromosomes it would develope as female. More recent findings have brought to light a much more complicated picture of gender determination, in which sex chromosomes play only a part of the process.

The topic deserves an article of its own, because the genetics article is much too general to allow dealing with such a special subject in sufficient detail, without expanding it too much. Over the last years, the study of genetics of gender have produced many impressive insights into the workings of genetic mechanisms which determine who will be a male and who will be a female. This has a great potential in many domains: for instance, in the pharmaceutical domain until recently female biology was considered sufficient to help explain and develop new drugs or therapies, but these new findings in the area of genetics of gender point to the fact that men and women may actually react differently to different types of diet and medicines, due to genetic differences. Thus, the medical science of tomorrow and many other fields (like sports or nutrition) will have to take into account how different males and females are genetically and how does that affect their interaction with most of the factors in our environment. I think this article will grow and attract a lot of interest in the years to come. Admittedly, there is alot of work to be done before this article will be complete even by today's standards of knowledge. I will try to do that. Aliasflavius (talk) 02:15, 13 December 2009 (UTC)


 * You probably were unaware of XY sex-determination system. I've merged this article there, because it didn't cover anything else. Tijfo098 (talk) 01:12, 18 October 2010 (UTC)