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Hormones Rule the Roost: Hormonal Influences on Sex Ratio Adjustment in Birds and Mammals

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Choosing Sexes

Part of the book series: Fascinating Life Sciences ((FLS))

Abstract

In previous chapters, I have provided evidence that both birds and mammals skew offspring sex ratios in response to environmental and social conditions and that, in each group, there are several mechanistic targets at which such manipulation of offspring sex may occur. What we still don’t know, however, is how those environmental and social conditions are transduced into physiological signals that will ultimately influence the process of sex determination. Hormones are excellent candidates for this job because they are, by nature, transducers of environmental information that trigger appropriate physiological responses. The sex and stress steroids, in particular, emerge in both birds and mammals as likely mediators of sex ratio adjustment. In this chapter, I discuss the roles of both stress and sex steroids in mammalian and avian sex ratio adjustment and also introduce some additional hormones, such as leptin and ghrelin, which have gone unstudied as mediators of sex ratio adjustment in these systems.

In view of the apparent lack of genetic variance in the sex ratio in many species, a hormonal mechanism mediated by environmental factors provides a plausible explanation of many trends

Clutton-Brock and Iason (1986)

The purpose of this note is to persuade endocrinologists that mammalian sex ratios merit their attention

James (2008)

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  1. Department of Poultry Science, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA

    Kristen J. Navara

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Navara, K.J. (2018). Hormones Rule the Roost: Hormonal Influences on Sex Ratio Adjustment in Birds and Mammals. In: Choosing Sexes. Fascinating Life Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71271-0_7

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