Gender identity from conception – the point of view of the geneticist

Alina T. Midro

Wydział Lekarski, Zakład Genetyki Klinicznej, Uniwersytet Medyczny w Białymstoku

Abstract

Femininity and masculinity associated with human identity is genetically determined from the beginning of the individual human being. The diverse genetic material with the appropriate software epigenetic characteristic of a particular gender is introduced at the moment of conception due to sperm penetrating to the egg. It is then that the process of molecular changes that differentiate sex of cells and thus the whole organism of the human person is initiated. Different genes and regulators are involved in shaping the characteristics of the female or male human body and forms of their behavior. They reveal their activity depending on the developmental age of the body and the functions of individual tissues and organs forming a related system known as sexome. Regulatory mechanisms of the genome software called the epigenome responding well to environmental influences belong to the elements performing in a network of links. Therefore, the genetically and epigenetically determined sexual dimorphism of human beings is a natural way of their social and cultural development.