Nettie Stevens and Edmund Wilson explain how biological sex is determined by special chromosomes.

Hello, I'm Nettie Stevens. Dr. Edmund Wilson and I showed that sex is determined by special chromosomes. I did it by looking at cells of meal worms. [MEAL WORM LARVA] The following drawings are adapted from my 1905 paper. Body cells from female worms have 20 chromosomes, all similar in size. As expected, female gametes have a half set of chromosomes (10). [FEMALE BODY CELL GAMETE (EGG)] In male body cells, there are 19 similar chromosomes and one that is much smaller. I found that two types of male gametes are made during meiosis. Some sperm have the small chromosome, and some don't. [MALE BODY CELL GAMETES (SPERM)] I concluded that the "different" chromosome must be responsible for maleness in meal worms. This different chromosome Y and its larger partner X are sex chromosomes. Sex in most species is determined by these sex chromosomes. So, sex is inherited like a Mendelian trait. Human sex is determined this way... Females have two X chromosomes; Males have one X and one Y. Since females can only contribute an X chromosome, males are responsible for the sex of offspring. They can provide either an X chromosome for a female... XX: It's a girl! ....or a Y chromosome for a male. If meiosis and fertilization occur normally, there will be an equal number of males and females. XY: It's a boy!

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