The intersex (ix) gene works in concert with doublesex (dsx) at the bottom of the sex-determination hierarchy to control somatic sexual differentiation in Drosophila melanogaster females. Here we report the isolation and characterization of the Drosophila intersex (ix) homologue in the pest lepidopteron Maruca vitrata (Mvix). The Mvix gene exhibits major complexity with respect to the Drosophil...

Letter to the Editor

Five true hermaphrodite pigs and two male pseudohermaphrodite pigs were studied. A 38XX sex chromosome constitution was found in peripheral leucocytes of three true hermaphrodites and in one male pseudohermaphrodite; XX/XY mixoploidy was present in the leucocytes of the remaining male pseudohermaphrodite. The occurrence of C19 steroids, including 16-androstenes, in the testicular tissue and sub...

To assess the impact of an estrogenic wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent on fish reproduction, white suckers (Catostomus commersoni) were collected from immediately upstream and downstream (effluent site) of the city of Boulder, CO, WWTP outfall. Gonadal intersex, altered sex ratios, reduced gonad size, disrupted ovarian and testicular histopathology, and vitellogenin induction consiste...

HE sex determining mechanism in diploid Drosophila melanogaster is T completely stable. No intersexual individuals are produced from hybridizing strains of D. melanogaster collected from widely separated geographical localities. In Lymantria, on the contrary, GOLDSCHMIDT (1934) has shown that the potencies of the X chromosome sex gene differs in races from Europe and Japan. The degree of sexual...

In 2010, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) received federal funding to test an evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention program. The grant required a major modification to an existing program and a randomized control trial (RCT) to test its effectiveness. As the major modifications, Alaska used peer educators instead of adults to deliver the program to youth aged 14-19 inst...

OBJECTIVES To assess the efficiency of a short-stay unit (SSU) for undifferentiated medical patients and evaluate its effect on the overall efficiency of a general medicine department. DESIGN, SETTING AND PATIENTS Retrospective study of all general medical patients admitted to the SSU at Flinders Medical Centre, South Australia, during its 5 years of operation (2005-2009), compared with 4 yea...

The use of laparoscopic technique to diagnose and treat intersex children is gradually introduced in clinical urology. From 1985 to 1996, abdominal exploration and gonadectomy were performed in 11 intersex children together with urogenital endoscopy and genitoplastic surgery in our institutes. Their median age was 6.0 (range 0-15) years old and initial gender sex was female in 8 and male in 3. ...