The “male” Y chromosome in humans may eventually disappear completely. In this case, it is possible to completely reprogram gender using injection or genomic editing at stages of embryo development, which will also affect primary sexual characteristics. A geneticist, a leading researcher at the Institute of General Genetics, explained that this mechanism can be fixed in the genome, inherited and often replace the Y chromosome if it is lost in the process of human evolution. NI Vavilov RAS, professor at the Konstantin Krutovsky Department of Genomics and Bioinformatics at the Siberian Federal University (SFU).
“Humans have a chromosomal inheritance, but it is very rigid. If XY, it will definitely be male, and if XX, it will definitely be female. It has nothing to do with the environment. This ensures that the one-to-one ratio in this form is always maintained. In reality, slightly more boys are born for various reasons,” says Krutovsky.
But there is another way to regulate sex – dose. A particular gene “sheds” more and the female develops, not the male, or vice versa. In this way, for example, the sex of some turtles is regulated. In warmer conditions more females are born, in less warm conditions males are born. The activity of a particular gene depends on temperature.
According to the professor, it is also possible to artificially regulate gender in humans using the dose effect.
“It would be very easy to edit, you increase the expression (activity) of a gene and you start developing completely into the male variant. This can be done by injection and you can possibly maintain that dose for a while, or you can stabilize and make the increased dose permanent through genome editing. If this is done in the early stages of development, before puberty, then the girl will no longer be able to develop primary female sexual characteristics, she will not have a vagina and breasts. Development will follow a purely masculine pattern. Or, on the contrary, you can suppress the activity of certain genes in boys and development will follow a purely feminine pattern. This is radically different from today’s picture of transition from one gender to another,” Krutovsky explained.
For more information about what happens if a person also loses their Y chromosome completely and whether this is possible, see: material “socialbites.ca”.
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