The discovery of the Sry gene in 1990 triggered a revolution in our understanding of sex determination. More recently, advances in non-model organisms have been fuelled by the rapid evolution of affordable genome and transcriptome technologies. This Review considers the unusual plasticity in the bipotential system of sex determination and some of the diverse mechanisms that have evolved to control this critical developmental decision, including strong genetic pathways, environmental influences and epigenetic regulation. Ideas emerging from model and non-model organisms that suggest that sex determination operates as an antagonistic network with the emergent property of bistability are discussed.

中文翻译：

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脊椎动物的性别决定：根本性转变的进化可塑性

1990年Sry基因的发现引发了我们对性别决定的理解的一场革命。最近，可负担的基因组和转录组技术的快速发展推动了非模式生物的发展。这篇综述考虑了性别决定的双能系统中异常的可塑性，以及为控制这一重要的发育决定而进化出的多种多样的机制，包括强大的遗传途径，环境影响和表观遗传调控。讨论了来自模型生物和非模型生物的想法，这些想法表明性别确定是具有双稳态的新兴性质的对立网络。