7 - Development of Sexual Traits

Summary

Acquiring the traits specific to a given sex, during early development or at another point during the life of an organism, is usually a complex process. Although the sex condition of an individual is conventionally defined based on the type of gametes it is able to produce (Chapter 4), the sex-specific phenotype is generally not limited to the organs of reproduction. Each of these characters can maintain a certain degree of independence from other sexual traits in the same organism, be subject to different developmental control, and show different degrees of sensitivity to the environment. Therefore, sexual differentiation extends to the development of the secondary sexual characters, which can be morphological, physiological, behavioural, or combinations of these. An exploration of this fascinating subject requires some preliminary clarification about systems and mechanisms of sex determination and sex differentiation.