Identifying Sex of Neonate Turtles with Temperature-dependent Sex Determination via Small Blood Samples.
Journal
Scientific reports
ISSN: 2045-2322
Titre abrégé: Sci Rep
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101563288
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
19 03 2020
19 03 2020
Historique:
received:
29
08
2019
accepted:
21
02
2020
entrez:
21
3
2020
pubmed:
21
3
2020
medline:
15
12
2020
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
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.
Identifiants
pubmed: 32193464
doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-61984-2
pii: 10.1038/s41598-020-61984-2
pmc: PMC7081227
doi:
Substances chimiques
Biomarkers
0
Anti-Mullerian Hormone
80497-65-0
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
5012Références
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