Metabolic consequences of sex-reversal in two lizard species: a test of the like genotype and like phenotype hypotheses

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. The published version of this Preprint is available: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.245657. This is version 2 of this Preprint.

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Authors

Kristoffer H Wild, John H Roe, Lisa Schwanz, Essie Rodgers, Duminda S. B. Dissanayake, Arthur Georges, Stephen D Sarre, Daniel W.A. Noble

Abstract

Vertebrate sex is typically determined genetically, but in many ectotherms sex can be determined by genes (Genetic Sex Determination: GSD), temperature (Temperature-dependent Sex Determination: TSD), or interactions between genes and temperature during development. Temperature dependent sex determination may involve GSD systems with either male or female heterogamety (XX/XY or ZZ/ZW) where temperature overrides chromosomal sex determination to cause a mismatch between genetic sex and phenotypic sex (sex-reversal). In these temperature-sensitive lineages, phylogenetic investigations point to recurrent evolutionary shifts between genotypic and temperature-dependent sex determination. These evolutionary transitions in sex determination can occur rapidly if selection favours the reversed sex over their concordant phenotypic sex. To investigate the consequences of sex-reversal on offspring fitness, we measured two energy-driven traits often linked to fitness (metabolism and growth-rate) and 6-month survival in two species of reptile with different patterns of temperature-induced sex-reversal. Male sex-reversal occurs in Bassiana duperreyi when chromosomal females (femaleXX) develop male phenotypes (maleSRXX), while female sex-reversal occurs in Pogona vitticeps when chromosomal males (maleZZ) develop female phenotypes (femaleSRZZ). We show metabolism in maleSRXX was like that of maleXY, that is, reflective of phenotypic sex and lower than genotypic sex. In contrast, for Pogona vitticeps, femaleSRZZ metabolism was intermediate between maleZZ and femaleZW metabolic rate. For both species, our data indicate differences in metabolism become more apparent as individuals become larger. Our findings provide some evidence for a fitness advantage from sex-reversal in both species but do not exclude energetic processes as a constraint on the distribution of sex-reversal in nature.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.32942/X2WK5F

Subjects

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences

Keywords

energetics, sex determination, sex-reversal, Pogona vitticeps, Bassiana duperreyi, sex determination, sex-reversal, Pogona vitticeps, Bassiana duperreyi

Dates

Published: 2023-04-06 04:53

Last Updated: 2023-06-24 07:13

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License

CC BY Attribution 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Conflict of interest statement:
I/We declare we have no competing interests

Data and Code Availability Statement:
Data, code, and additional resources are available on GitHub: https://github.com/daniel1noble/energy_sex_reversal.git