Lusardo 1 Nicolas Lusardo Bio13 Carolyn Bauer 2 November 2010 The Discriminatory De-medaling of AFA The lab conducted

three different types of sex testing in order to determine the exact gender of AFA. The results of the physical exam were that the external genitalia was completely developed female, and that the secondary sex characteristics were breasts and no chest or facial hair. Based on this test, we concluded that AFA was female. The results of a karyotype analysis show that AFA has two X chromosomes, again indicating a female gender. We conducted a third gender test, a PCR, that showed seemingly contradictory results. While AFA had two X chromosomes, there also appeared to be an SRY gene. Usually in the case of SRY presence, the predicted gender is male; however, clearly from the results of the first two gender tests, AFA does not show any signs of being male. The presence of completely developed female genitalia, breasts, the absence of chest and facial hair, and an XX female karyotype clearly override the results of the PCR testing. The lack of a DYZ1 gene, present in multiple copies on the Y chromosome, is further evidence to AFAs lack of a Y chromosome. It is much more likely that the presence of the SRY gene is a result of translocation on the X chromosome during meiosis I. The fact that AFA has female external genitalia implies that the SRY gene that may have been translocated onto an X chromosome during meiosis I is not fully functional. My recommendation to the 2008 Summer Olympics panel is to reinstate her gold medal. The majority of test methods show that AFA is indeed female. Even the PCR test that indicated AFAs gender should be male, there is enough possibility for meiotic error that it cannot be fully concluded that all XX individuals with the SRY gene will develop male. Further testing is unnecessary and will most probably only yield supporting evidence in favor of what already can be inferred. Further testing would also result in additional emotion stress on AFA.