i’ve been out of school for a while, but when i was in school, there was no mention of any SRY gene and it’s functions and ability to travel to either X or Y and implications and all of that. It’s a little confusing for me at the moment so could someone explain?
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Understand that when you’re in school and learning about science, particularly about biology, the content is simplified because of time constraints and the need for additional context. You may have been taught about X/Y sex selection in gross terms because it’s an easy to grasp example in genetics. What they didn’t cover in detail is the details of how the system works (which, with some additional knowledge in genetics would lead you to hypothesize, correctly, that sometimes it doesn’t work).
Anatomical sex is determined through the effects of several genes, particularly one called SRY that is usually found on the Y chromosome. If you studied genetics, you’d know that there are several different things that could knock out the function of this gene, or that could have it break off a Y chromosome and land in an X chromosome so that you can end up with XY people that develop as females, or XX people that develop as males. You’d also be aware that there are chimeric people that are a blend of XX and XY-containing cells that could develop as some combination, and so on.
At the same time, the lesson that there’s a singular determinant factor that behaves in a particular way is still a valuable lesson that gives insight into how the system works, without getting into the weeds of the ways it can sometimes breakdown.
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