During the blood stage of their life cycle, malaria parasites invade and replicate within host erythrocytes. Some parasites differentiate to form male and female gametocytes, enabling transmission to the insect vector. Two studies by Regev-Rudzki et al. and Mantel et al. reveal an unexpected role for cell-cell communication using extracellular vesicles in triggering the commitment of malaria pa...

Hermaphroditism is rare and phylogenically in decline among animal species. The evolutionary basis for this development is not well understood. This paper focusses on self-incompatible simultaneous hermaphroditism in animals. It proposes that such hermaphroditism is not stable in sufficiently heterogeneous populations, suggesting a possible reason for why hermaphroditism is rare among evolved a...

BACKGROUND Disorders of sex development (DSD) is a group of sexual differentiation disorders resulting in genital anomalies with defects in gonadal hormone synthesis and/or incomplete genital development. These conditions result in problems concerning the sex assignment of the child. This study aims to describe the clinical features, diagnosis and management of children with DSD in southern Tha...

Disorders of sex development often arise from anomalies in the molecular or cellular networks that guide the differentiation of the embryonic gonad into either a testis or an ovary, two functionally distinct organs. The activation of the Y-linked gene Sry (sex-determining region Y) and its downstream target Sox9 (Sry box-containing gene 9) triggers testis differentiation by stimulating the diff...

N Engl J Med 2004;350:367-78. Copyright © 2004 Massachusetts Medical Society. ex determination, which depends on the sex-chromosome complement of the embryo, is established by multiple molecular events that direct the development of germ cells, their migration to the urogenital ridge, and the formation of either a testis, in the presence of the Y chromosome (46,XY), or an ovary in the absence o...

Brain development diverges in males and females in response to androgen production by the fetal testis. This sexual differentiation of the brain occurs during a sensitive window and induces enduring neuroanatomical and physiological changes that profoundly impact behavior. What we know about the contribution of sex chromosomes is still emerging, highlighting the need to integrate multiple facto...

Stress and fear conditioning processes are both important vulnerability factors in the development of psychiatric disorders. In behavioral studies considerable sex differences in fear learning have been observed after increases of the stress hormone cortisol. But neuroimaging experiments, which give insights into the neurobiological correlates of stress × sex interactions in fear conditioning, ...

The preference to seek out a sexual partner of the opposite sex is robust and ensures reproduction and survival of the species. Development of female-directed partner preference in the male is dependent on exposure of the developing brain to gonadal steroids synthesized during critical periods of sexual differentiation of the central nervous system. In the absence of androgen exposure, a male-d...