>You're quite right that the essential genetic differences between men
>and women are much smaller than between humans and chimps. In humans
>and other mammals, the male sex determination switch is controlled by
>a single gene on the Y chromosome, SRY (sex-determining region Y).
>Expression of this gene is believed to initiate a cascade of gene
>interactions leading to the development of testes in the fetus and
>thus switching fetal development from the female default path to male.
>
>The clinching evidence for the controlling role of SRY in sex
>determination came from an experiment of the kind you suggest -
>although carried out in mice rather than humans. When SRY was
>introduced into female (XX) mice as a transgene, the fetuses
>developed as males (Koopman P, Gubbay J, Vivian N, Goodfellow P,
>Lovell-Badge R. Male development of chromosomally female mice
>transgenic for SRY. Nature 1991; 351:117-121.)
>
>Also, although for both ethical and technical reasons the same
>experiment has not be carried out in humans, studies have noted
>both XX males (due to a translocation of an SRY-containing part of
>the Y chromosome) and XY females (due to various point mutations in
>SRY).
>
>In reference to evolution, it reinforces the point that relatively
>small genetic changes can have profound effects on development.
>
>Calum
If I remember right, there was an article in the _Perspectives . . ._
relating this to Jesus in the early 1990's. All my copies are in deep
storage at this time so I am sorry that I cannot come up with a better
reference right now. Any comments on the possibility that Jesus was
genotypically female if He only inherited Mary's DNA and phenotypically male?
John