2. Academic Validation
  3. The Embryos of Turtles Can Influence Their Own Sexual Destinies

The Embryos of Turtles Can Influence Their Own Sexual Destinies

  • Curr Biol. 2019 Aug 19;29(16):2597-2603.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.038.
Yin-Zi Ye 1,  Liang Ma 2,  Bao-Jun Sun 2,  Teng Li 3,  Yang Wang 4,  Richard Shine 5,  Wei-Guo Du 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100049, China.
  • 2 Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
  • 3 Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agriculture University, Nanjing 210095, China.
  • 4 Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; College of Life Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050024, China.
  • 5 Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
  • 6 Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China. Electronic address: duweiguo@ioz.ac.cn.
PMID: 31378606 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.038
Abstract

Sessile organisms with thermally sensitive developmental trajectories are at high risk from climate change. For example, oviparous reptiles with temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) may experience strong (potentially disastrous) shifts in offspring sex ratio if reproducing females are unable to predict incubation conditions at the time of oviposition. How then have TSD reptile taxa persisted over previous periods of extreme climatic conditions? An ability of embryos to move within the egg to select optimal thermal regimes could buffer ambient extremes, but the feasibility of behavioral thermoregulation by embryos has come under strong challenge. To test this idea, we measured thermal gradients within eggs in semi-natural nests of a freshwater turtle species with TSD, manipulated embryonic thermoregulatory ability, and modeled the effects of embryonic thermoregulation on offspring sex ratios. Behavioral thermoregulation by embryos accelerated development and influenced offspring sex ratio, expanding the range of ambient conditions under which nests produce equal numbers of male and female offspring. Model projections suggest that sex ratio shifts induced by global warming will be buffered by the ability of embryos to influence their sexual destiny via behavioral thermoregulation.

Keywords

climate change; embryonic development; hatchling; reptile; sex determination; thermoregulation.

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