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There is extensive evidence that vertebrates of all classes have the ability to control the sexes of the offspring they produce. Despite dramatic differences in the mechanisms by which different taxa determine the initial sex of offspring, each group has found its own way of adjusting offspring sex ratios in response to social and environmental cues. For example, stress is a well-known modulator of offspring sex in members of all groups studied to date. Food availability, and limitation in particular, is another common cue that stimulates biases in offspring sex ratios in a wide variety of species. Offspring sex can be adjusted at the primary level, which occurs prior to conception, or at the secondary level, during embryonic development. While the mechanistic pathways that ultimately result in sex ratio biases and the developmental time-points sensitive to those mechanisms likely differ among taxa, the key involvement of steroid hormones in the process of sex ratio adjustmentappears to be pervasive throughout.
This book reviews the systems of sex determination at play in different vertebrate groups, summarizes the evidence that members of all vertebrate taxa can facultatively adjust offspring sex, and discusses when and how these adjustments can take place.
List of contents
Introduction to Vertebrate Sex Ratio Adjustment.- It's a boy! Evidence for sex ratio adjustment in humans.- Facultative sex ratio adjustment in non-human mammals.- Potential mechanisms of sex ratio adjustment in humans and non-human mammals.- The bees do it, but what about the birds?- Evidence for sex ratio adjustment in birds.- Potential mechanisms of sex ratio adjustment in birds.- Hormones Rule the Roost: Hormonal influences on sex ratio adjustment in birds and mammals.- What went wrong at Jurassic Park? Modes of sex determination and adaptive sex allocation in reptiles.- The truth about Nemo's Dad: Sex-changing behaviors in fishes.- Mechanisms of environmental sex determination in fish, amphibians, and reptiles.
About the author
Kristen J. Navara
Associate Professor & Graduate Coordinator
Department of Poultry Science
The University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia, USA
Education
Postdoctoral Fellow, The Ohio State University
Ph.D, Biological Sciences, Auburn University
B.S. Biology, The Pennsylvania State University
Research Interests
Sex ratio manipulation and ovarian follicular dynamics in female birds, Mechanistic bases of yolk androgen deposition, links between maternal immunity and the manipulation of offspring phenotype
Summary
Summarizes the latest studies on sexdetermination in vertebrates Maximizes readers insights into how animals and humans can adjust the sexes of offspringIllustrates the detailed mechanisms how the sex adjustment can be achieved
Additional text
“For over a century, biologists have understood that many vertebrates have an ability to allocate the sex of their offspring in response to a wide variety of genetic, environmental, and social factors. … The purpose of this book is to provide a comprehensive review of the literature concerning these topics, and Navara (Univ. of Georgia) achieves this goal admirably. … Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, and faculty.” (R. K. Harris, Choice, Vol. 56 (03), November, 2018)
Report
"For over a century, biologists have understood that many vertebrates have an ability to allocate the sex of their offspring in response to a wide variety of genetic, environmental, and social factors. ... The purpose of this book is to provide a comprehensive review of the literature concerning these topics, and Navara (Univ. of Georgia) achieves this goal admirably. ... Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, and faculty." (R. K. Harris, Choice, Vol. 56 (03), November, 2018)
