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Identifying Sex of Neonate Turtles with Temperature-dependent Sex Determination via Small Blood Samples
- Source :
- Scientific Reports, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2020), Scientific Reports
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Temperature-dependent sex determination, present in most turtle species, is a mechanism that uses temperature to direct the sex of the embryo. The rapid increase of global temperatures highlights the need for a clear assessment of how sex ratios of organisms with TSD are affected. In turtles with TSD, quantifying primary sex ratios is challenging because they lack external dimorphism and heteromorphic sex chromosomes. Here we describe a new technique used to identify sex in neonate turtles of two TSD species, a freshwater turtle (Trachemys scripta) and a marine turtle (Caretta caretta) via analysis of small blood samples. We used an immunoassay approach to test samples for the presence of several proteins known to play an important role in sex differentiation. Our results show that Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) can be reliably detected in blood samples from neonate male turtles but not females and can be used as a sex-specific marker. Verification of sex via histology or laparoscopy revealed that this method was 100% reliable for identifying sex in both T. scripta and C. caretta 1–2 day-old hatchlings and 90% reliable for identifying sex in 83–177 day-old (120–160 g) loggerhead juveniles. The method described here is minimally invasive, and for the first time, greatly enhances our ability to measure neonate turtle sex ratios at population levels across nesting sites worldwide, a crucial step in assessing the impact of climate change on imperiled turtle species.
- Subjects :
- Anti-Mullerian Hormone
Male
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
Sex Determination Analysis
Climate Change
Population
lcsh:Medicine
Zoology
Biology
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Article
law.invention
03 medical and health sciences
law
Animals
Sex Ratio
Turtle (robot)
lcsh:Science
education
Hatchling
Immunoassay
education.field_of_study
Multidisciplinary
Sexual differentiation
Temperature-dependent sex determination
Herpetology
Conservation biology
lcsh:R
Temperature
Turtles
Sexual dimorphism
030104 developmental biology
Trachemys scripta
Animals, Newborn
Differentiation
Female
lcsh:Q
Biomarkers
Sex ratio
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 20452322
- Volume :
- 10
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Scientific Reports
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....7a159199aabcbcab6311048eb5a8685a