Fermion masses and mixings in gauge theories

The recent evidence for neutrino oscillations stimulate us to discuss again the problem of fermion masses and mixings in gauge theories. In the standard model, several forms for quark mass matrices are equivalent. They become ansatze within most extensions of the standard model, where also relations between quark and lepton sectors may hold. In a seesaw framework, these relations can constrain the scale of heavy neutrino mass, which is often related to the scale of intermediate or unification gauge symmetry. As a consequence, two main scenarios arise. Hierarchies of masses and mixings may be explained by broken horizontal symmetries.