How The Environment Affect Sex Determination

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The sex of a male or female is mostly determined by sex chromosomes which results from set of genes. In the recent time, it can be said that environment partly contributes to sex determination. They are so many environmental factors that may affect this production like humidity, cell types, temperature, food, location of the birth and timely of the sexual intercourse but this essay focuses on effect of temperature alongside other factors .
Most reptiles show temperature dependent sex determination in which low temperature within the range of 20-27 degree Celsius producing females and producing males at higher temperature within the range of 30 and above degree Celsius .Temperature in between these two ranges stated above gives varying ratios of males and females. Usually, the temperature is between 28-31 degree is usually termed the threshold. The reason for this variation for this variation is hormonal. Males has higher amount of testosterone and it is their primary sex hormone.. The level of aromatase is necessary for the development of ovaries than the presence or the absence. Aromatase is competitive inhibitor which competes with 5- alpha reductase for androgen substrate in the brain .Aromatase activity in the brain shows increase in the selection of gonads in both sexes. Due to the effect of aromatase (it converts testosterone to estradiol which is form of estrogen) which works at a very low temperature more females are produced in the. If by any chance males are needed in the population, the enzymes could be blocked by raising the temperature.Enzyme is catalyst that speeds up the rate of chemical reaction by lowering the activation energy. Enzyme can be denatured by high temperature and high ph .Most males can also be produc...

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...fact that it need to long term data, correlations and researches. More information is needed on how temperature sex determination works under natural conditions to know its full ecological implication.

Works Cited

Valenzuela N. "Temperature-dependent Sex Determination."Http://www.public.iastate.edu/. N.p., 6 Jan. 2004. Web. 6 May 2014.
Sturtevant, H. The Himalayan rabbit case, with some considerations on multiple allelomorphs. American Naturalist 47, 234–238 (1913).
Gilbert, Scott F. "Temperature-dependent Sex Determination in Reptiles."Environmental Sex Determination. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 18 Dec. -0001. Web. 06 May 2014.
Janzen FJ, and GL Paukstis. "Environmental Sex Determination in Reptiles: Ecology, Evolution, and Experimental Design." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 1991. Web. 07 May 2014.

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