Gender Genetics
A gene which in certain circumstances could lead to babies being born with malformed genitalia has been revealed by researchers .... As many as 1% of all births involve some sort of malformation, although the majority are quite minor, such as undescended testes or an enlarged clitoris .... The cause of these "ambiguous genitalia" have always been a mystery to researchers, although there have been for some time suspicions that a selection of sex genes might be involved.
Dr Eric Vilain, who lead the research, said: "Our discovery offers insight into the genetic pathway of sex determination - what makes a man male and a woman female .... These findings suggest that WNT-4 influences the sex determination pathway at each step of the way .... We discovered that when the amount of the gene fluctuates even slightly at any stage in the genetic blueprint, it changes the embryo from male to female .... If this proves true, we may be able to correct the defect in the womb and restore the embryo to its original male status."
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