Elevated Earth temperature makes the lizard change sex

The lizards now carry both male and female genes, reproductive. The researcher adds that rising temperatures can cause changes in other animals, not just lizards.

The high temperature makes male lizards turn into female lizards

The cause of lizards' gender change is determined by the gradual climate change that makes sex chromosomes disappear - Clare Holleley of the University of Canberra, the lead author of this study. "This is the first time we have demonstrated the gender reversal in nature of reptiles," he said.

She said: "This study shows that rapid climate change has fundamentally changed the biology of some species." Some other reptiles, such as crocodiles and some turtles, are not determined by sex chromosomes like humans and mammals, but the temperature when deciding to hatch eggs.

So far, lizards still rely on sex chromosomes to determine what gender they carry. Like birds, its sex chromosome is Z and W instead of X and Y as humans. Males are ZZ and females are ZW. In humans, everyone has X chromosomes and Y represents the genetic characteristic of men.

Holleley and colleagues examined the signs of genetic sex of 131 wild brown lizards in the Australian province of Queensland, and found that 11 newborn lizards were children, but they had both ZZ chromosomes of males.

However, these 11 brown lizards are still small, so she and her colleagues will continue to expand their research.

The team also found that the sexes of lizards are no longer determined by chromosomes, but by temperature.

Tests show that the transition from chromosome sex determination to sex conversion by temperature seems to start around 32 degrees Celsius to 36 degrees Celsius, Holleley said.

Holleley adds that rising temperatures can cause changes in other animals, not just lizard species: "It can happen to other species, but it may not be possible. with people ".

This is the first time this phenomenon has been found in reptiles in nature, and possibly in other species because of the effects of climate change.

This study shows that embryos have two Z chromosomes - making them sexually male - and can develop females depending on the incubation temperature.

It means that its gender is determined by both chromosome and temperature when hatching eggs . Combining data from 131 large lizards with other experiments, shows that 11 individual lizards are male chromosomes but they are actually females.

When lizards convert sex from male to female, they are still able to mate and reproduce normally like other females. And their offspring tend to change sex more and almost, sex-changing lizards from males to females have nearly double the number of eggs produced compared to non- transgenic lizards. sex.

Holleley also adds that gender change is widespread and widely distributed over a total area of ​​15,000 square miles in the arid region of Australia.

The rate of gender change increases every year from 6.7% in 2003 to 13.6% in 2004 and 22.2% in 2011.

Biologist James Bull, of the University of Texas at Austin, after reviewing these studies, believes that it will inspire to begin research on other species.