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Lecture

Sex Differentiation: Reproductive System and Gonads

Description

This lecture covers the sex differentiation process, focusing on the reproductive system, gonads, and the development of male and female characteristics. Topics include the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad axis, gonadal targets of steroid hormones, and the role of genetic sex in determining phenotypic sex.

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Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Health sciences

Endocrinology: Topics in endocrinology

Related concepts (32)

Sex-determining region Y protein

'Sex-determining region Y protein' (SRY), or testis-determining factor (TDF), is a DNA-binding protein (also known as gene-regulatory protein/transcription factor) encoded by the SRY gene that is responsible for the initiation of male sex determination in therian mammals (placental mammals and marsupials). SRY is an intronless sex-determining gene on the Y chromosome. Mutations in this gene lead to a range of disorders of sex development with varying effects on an individual's phenotype and genotype.

Steroid hormone

A steroid hormone is a steroid that acts as a hormone. Steroid hormones can be grouped into two classes: corticosteroids (typically made in the adrenal cortex, hence cortico-) and sex steroids (typically made in the gonads or placenta). Within those two classes are five types according to the receptors to which they bind: glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids (both corticosteroids) and androgens, estrogens, and progestogens (sex steroids). Vitamin D derivatives are a sixth closely related hormone system with homologous receptors.

Y chromosome

The Y chromosome is one of two sex chromosomes in therian mammals and other organisms. The other sex chromosome is the X chromosome. Y is normally the sex-determining chromosome in many species, since it is the presence or absence of Y that determines the male or female sex of offspring produced in sexual reproduction. In mammals, the Y chromosome contains the gene SRY, which triggers male development. The DNA in the human Y chromosome is composed of about 62 million base pairs, making it similar in size to chromosome 19.

Hormone

A hormone (from the Greek participle ὁρμῶν, "setting in motion") is a class of signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs by complex biological processes to regulate physiology and behavior. Hormones are required for the correct development of animals, plants and fungi. Due to the broad definition of a hormone (as a signaling molecule that exerts its effects far from its site of production), numerous kinds of molecules can be classified as hormones.

Male reproductive system

The male reproductive system consists of a number of sex organs that play a role in the process of human reproduction. These organs are located on the outside of the body and within the pelvis. The main male sex organs are the penis and the scrotum which contains the testicles that produce semen and sperm, which, as part of sexual intercourse, fertilize an ovum in the female's body; the fertilized ovum (zygote) develops into a fetus, which is later born as an infant. The corresponding system in females is the female reproductive system.

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