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Methyltestosterone alters sex determination in the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)
- Source :
- General and Comparative Endocrinology, vol. 236, pp. 63-69, Kérwá, Universidad de Costa Rica, instacron:UCR
- Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- Effects of xenobiotics can be organizational, permanently affecting anatomy during embryonic development, and/or activational, influencing transitory actions during adulthood. The organizational influence of endocrine-disrupting contaminants (EDC’s) produces a wide variety of reproductive abnormalities among vertebrates that exhibit temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD). Typically, such influences result in subsequent activational malfunction, some of which are beneficial in aquaculture. For example, 17-amethyltestosterone (MT), a synthetic androgen, is utilized in tilapia farming to bias sex ratio towards males because they are more profitable. A heavily male-biased hatchling sex ratio is reported from a crocodile population near one such tilapia operation in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. In this study we test the effects of MT on sexual differentiation in American alligators, which we used as a surrogate for all crocodilians. Experimentally, alligators were exposed to MT in ovo at standard ecotoxicological concentrations. Sexual differentiation was determined by examination of primary and secondary sex organs post hatching. We find that MT is capable of producing male embryos at temperatures known to produce females and demonstrate a dose-dependent gradient of masculinization. Embryonic exposure to MT results in hermaphroditic primary sex organs, delayed renal development and masculinization of the clitero-penis (CTP). UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Básicas::Facultad de Ciencias::Escuela de Biología UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Instituto Clodomiro Picado (ICP)
- Subjects :
- Male
0106 biological sciences
Sex Determination Analysis
medicine.medical_specialty
Sex Differentiation
Alligator
Population
Zoology
Crocodilian
010501 environmental sciences
Biology
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Androgen
Endocrinology
597.98 Crocodilia (Cocodrilos)
Internal medicine
biology.animal
Methyltestosterone
medicine
Animals
Sex organ
education
American alligator
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Alligators and Crocodiles
education.field_of_study
Sexual differentiation
Temperature-dependent sex determination
biology.organism_classification
Female
Animal Science and Zoology
Sex ratio
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- General and Comparative Endocrinology, vol. 236, pp. 63-69, Kérwá, Universidad de Costa Rica, instacron:UCR
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....bfff6e97a79f4c61fc5516555edaabf9