The battle of the sexes starts in the oviduct: modulation of oviductal transcriptome by X and Y-bearing spermatozoa

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Apart from the purely scientific satisfaction gained from novel finding like this, several practical applications may stem from it. For example, if we could read the information ourselves, we would be able to separate male and female-chromosome bearing sperm before insemination. This would definitely interest the agricultural sector (e.g. cattle, sheep and pigs), where for various reasons they generally want to breed females. A practical application in humans fraught with ethical problems but may be helpful in terms of preventing sex-linked genetic diseases. It is also likely that if indeed information about the sex chromosomes can be accessed via the sperm surface, then information about other chromosomes might be readable. At present this is not a possibility because we first need to understand how the information is presented and read.

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