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Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on June 13, 2006
Human Reproduction 2006 21(10):2486-2490; doi:10.1093/humrep/del226
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

OPINION

Are there preconceptional determinants of mammalian sex? A response to Boklage (2005)

William H. James

The Galton Laboratory, University College London, London, UK

To whom correspondence should be addressed at: The Galton Laboratory, University College London, Wolfson House, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW 12HE, UK. E-mail: whjames{at}waitrose.com

Boklage (2005, Hum Reprod 20,583–587) wrote: ‘Changes in, or mediated by, the epigenetic environment of embryogenesis provide the most plausible prospects for causes of changes in secondary sex ratio’. Without impugning this notion, I suggest here that other causes of variation in secondary sex ratio antedate fertilization or, in other words, that there are circumstances under which unequal numbers of male and female zygotes are formed. It will be documented here that this suggestion has repeatedly been made on the basis of data on many mammalian species (golden hamster, sheep, mouse, white-tailed deer, American bison, springbok, domestic cattle and Barbary macaque). It may be acknowledged that the causes of this hypothesized preconceptional variation are not established. I have suggested one (parental hormones around the time of conception). But the truth of that hypothesis is not germane to the thrust of the present argument—which is to document the strong suspicions that such preconceptional determinants do, indeed, exist. Efforts should be made to confirm or discredit these suspicions.

Key words: preconceptional determinants/sex ratio


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