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Cytogenetic and genetic evidence of male sexual inversion by heat treatment in the newt Pleurodeles poireti

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Abstract

Larvae of Pleurodeles poireti were maintained during their development at a high temperature (31° C). In several species of amphibians, such a treatment is known to change the sex ratio through the inversion of genotypic females into phenotypic males. Pleurodeles poireti is an exception. It is the first reported amphibian in which heat induces an inversion of genotypic males into functional phenotypic females. The sexual genotype of standard and experimental phenotypic females was determined through heterochromosomes in lampbrush stage. In the present study, we have utilised another technique for identification of sexual genotype, applicable to both phenotypic males and females. It is based on the differential expression of a sexlinked gene, the peptidase 1.

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Dournon, C., Guillet, F., Boucher, D. et al. Cytogenetic and genetic evidence of male sexual inversion by heat treatment in the newt Pleurodeles poireti . Chromosoma 90, 261–264 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287033

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