Nettie Maria Stevens (1861-1912)
- Stevens was an American geneticist, who spent her career studying the life of beetles.
- In 1905, she noticed that male beetles produced two types of sperm: one carried a large chromosome and the other a small one.
- When fertilised with a female egg, the large chromosome would produce a female and the small one a male.
- From this research, Stevens developed the concept of the XY sex-determination system.
- Due to her gender, she did not receive credit for the discovery and it was largely given to Edmund Beecher Wilson.
Image: Nettie Stevens Tribute Page
Author: Gabriele Perminaite (2021) LJMU Student
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