Journal
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Volume 5, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE RESEARCH
DOI: 10.1038/srep18581
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Funding
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Research Fellowship for Young Scientists
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
- CoEE Center for Marine Genomics
- National Institute for Basic Biology (NIBB) International Collaborative Research Initiative
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [15H04396, 13J04135, 15H02501] Funding Source: KAKEN
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Temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), commonly found among reptiles, is a sex determination mode in which the incubation temperature during a critical temperature sensitive period (TSP) determines sexual fate of the individual rather than the individual's genotypic background. In the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), eggs incubated during the TSP at 33 degrees C (male producing temperature: MPT) yields male offspring, whereas incubation temperatures below 30 degrees C (female producing temperature: FPT) lead to female offspring. However, many of the details of the underlying molecular mechanism remains elusive, and the molecular link between environmental temperature and sex determination pathway is yet to be elucidated. Here we show the alligator TRPV4 ortholog (AmTRPV4) to be activated at temperatures proximate to the TSD-related temperature in alligators, and using pharmacological exposure, we show that AmTRPV4 channel activity affects gene expression patterns associated with male differentiation. This is the first experimental demonstration of a link between a well-described thermo-sensory mechanism, TRPV4 channel, and its potential role in regulation of TSD in vertebrates, shedding unique new light on the elusive TSD molecular mechanism.
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