Sexual Development and the Environment

Sexual development varies in the environmental plasticity underlying sex determination and differentiation. This issue compiles state-of-the-art reviews and theoretical and empirical papers about the effects of natural and altered environments on sexual development and its evolution in vertebrates to foster future research. This publication should be read by developmental biologists, evolutionary biologists, ecologists, and medical doctors. This collection of papers includes a review of 40 years of theory and a novel hypothesis about the ecology and evolution of environmental- or temperature-dependent sex determination (ESD/TSD) in long-lived and short-lived vertebrates. This is followed by reviews of the molecular, cellular, and maternal hormone underpinnings of TSD, plus an experimental study of Wnt signaling genes in TSD turtles. Further papers address the environmental, genetic, genomic, metabolic, and epigenetic underpinnings of sex determination/differentiation and sex change/reversal in fish. Other contributions argue that sex reversal is under-identified in reptiles and amphibians, and contributes to sex chromosome evolution. Finally, endocrine-disrupting chemical (EDC) effects in the sexual development and function of humans, crocodilians, and other animals are explored.