Experimental manipulation of steroid concentrations in circulation and in egg yolks of turtles

Thermal Response of Circulating Estrogens in an Emydid Turtle, Chrysemys picta, and the Challenges of Climate Change

Maternal hormones such as estrogens deposited into the yolk of turtle eggs follow circulating levels in adult females, and they may alter the sexual fate of developing embryos in species with temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD). In temperate regions, this deposition occurs during the spring when estrogens increase in adult females as ambient temperatures rise, drop after the first clutch, and peak again (albeit less) in the fall. Global warming alters turtle nesting phenology (inducing earlier nesting), but whether it affects circulating hormones remains unknown, hindering our understanding of all potential challenges posed by climate change and the adaptive potential (or lack thereof) of turtle populations. Here, we addressed this question in painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) by quantifying estradiol, estrone, and testosterone via mass spectrometry in the blood of wild adult females exposed to 26 °C and 21 °C in captivity between mid-August and mid-October (15 females per treatment). Results from ANOVA and pairwise comparisons revealed no differences between treatments in circulating hormones measured at days 0, 2, 7, 14, 28, and 56 of the experiment. Further research is warranted (during the spring, using additional temperatures) before concluding that females are truly buffered against the indirect risk of climate change via maternal hormone allocation.

Effects of augmented corticosterone in painted turtle eggs on offspring development and behavior

Maternal stressors can play an integral role in offspring development and ultimate behaviors in many vertebrates. Increased circulating stress avoidance hormones can be reflected in elevated concentrations in ova, thus providing a potential mechanism for maternal stress to be transmitted to offspring even in taxa without parental care. In this study, we assessed the potential impacts of augmented stress avoidance hormones on offspring development and anti-predator behaviors in a freshwater turtle, Chrysemys picta. We exposed C. picta eggs to biologically relevant amounts of the stress avoidance hormone, corticosterone, as a proxy for maternal stressors. We allowed the eggs to incubate in the field, then measured offspring phenotypes, conducted performance trials, and simulated nest emergence in a field experiment. Exogenous corticosterone reduced survivorship to hatch, but did not affect incubation duration, offspring size, overwinter survival, or size after hibernation. In performance trials, this hormone treatment reduced the frequency of righting, yet enhanced the righting speed of neonates. Regardless, these performance differences did not detectably alter survivorship in the nest emergence experiment. These results lend insight into the potential effects of maternal stress levels on offspring phenotypes, as well as the robustness of offspring fitness to altered levels of maternal stress in freshwater turtles.

Offspring sex in a TSD gecko correlates with an interaction between incubation temperature and yolk steroid hormones

We incubated eggs of the Japanese gecko Gekko japonicus at three temperatures, and measured yolk testosterone (T) and 17β-estradiol (E2) levels at three time points in embryonic development (oviposition, 1/3 of incubation, and 2/3 of incubation), to examine whether maternal influence on offspring sex via yolk steroid hormone deposition is significant in the species. Eggs incubated at 24 °C and 32 °C produced mostly females, and eggs incubated at 28 °C almost a 50:50 sex ratio of hatchlings. Female-producing eggs were larger than male-producing eggs. Clutches in which eggs were incubated at the same temperature produced mostly same-sex siblings. Yolk T level at laying was negatively related to eggs mass, and yolk E2/T ratio was positively related to egg mass. Results of two-way ANOVA with incubation temperature and stage as the factors show that: yolk E2 level was higher at 32 °C than at 24 °C; yolk T level was higher, whereas yolk E2/T ratio was smaller, at 28 °C than at 24 °C; yolk E2 and T levels were higher at 2/3 than at 1/3 of incubation. Our data in G. japonucus show that: (1) maternal influence on offspring sex via yolk steroid hormone deposition is significant; (2) incubation temperature affects the dynamics of developmental changes in yolk steroid hormones; (3) influences of yolk steroid hormones on offspring sex are secondary relative to incubation temperature effects; and (4) offspring sex correlates with an interaction between incubation temperature and yolk steroid hormones.

Newly deposited maternal hormones can be detected in the yolks of oviductal eggs in the green anole lizard

Studies often examine egg yolks after oviposition with the goal of drawing conclusions about maternal allocation of gonadal steroid hormones and how it may affect offspring development. However, these hormones might originate from a few sources, including the ovary, blood plasma, or the embryo itself. The goal of this study was to investigate whether maternal steroids can enter oviductal eggs. In Experiment 1, gravid female green anole lizards were injected with 1 microCi 3H-T. Plasma, ovarian follicles (separated into yolking and non-yolking samples), and shelled oviductal eggs were collected at times ranging from 15 min to 24 hr after treatment. Main effects of tissue, time, and an interaction between them all existed on recovered 3H-hormone corrected for tissue mass. Of particular interest, there was a decrease in plasma with coincident increase in eggs. In Experiment 2, females were injected with doses ranging from 0.01 to 0.45 microCi of 3H-T per gram body weight. Across tissues, 3H-hormone levels corrected for mass were greater with increasing doses. Values also differed among tissues and an interaction was detected. Within each dose, plasma and non-yolking follicles generally had higher concentrations of 3H-hormone than did yolking follicles and oviductal eggs. However, at and after 6 hr, eggs had higher total radioactivity levels than both yolking and non-yolking follicles had (not corrected for mass). The results indicate that steroids can cross through relatively well-formed shells before oviposition, suggesting a way in which maternal hormones might influence developmental factors after yolk deposition.

Offspring Sex Is Not Related to Maternal Allocation of Yolk Steroids in the Lizard Bassiana duperreyi (Scincidae)

The eggs of birds and reptiles contain detectable levels of several steroid hormones, and experimental application of such steroids can reverse genetically determined sex of the offspring. However, any causal influence of maternally derived yolk steroids on sex determination in birds and reptiles remains controversial. We measured yolk hormones (dihydrotestosterone, testosterone, and 17 beta-estradiol) in newly laid eggs of the montane scincid lizard Bassiana duperreyi. This species is well suited to such an analysis because (1) offspring sex is influenced by incubation temperatures and egg size as well as by sex chromosomes, suggesting that yolk hormones might somehow be involved in the complex pathways of sex determination, and (2) experimental application of either estradiol or fadrozole to such eggs strongly influences offspring sex. We obtained yolk by biopsy, before incubating the eggs at a temperature that produces a 50:50 sex ratio. Yolk steroid levels varied over a threefold range between eggs from different clutches, but there were no significant differences in yolk steroids, or in relative composition of steroids, between eggs destined to become male versus female. Further, yolk steroid concentrations were not significantly related to egg size. Thus, yolk steroid hormones do not appear to play a critical role in sex determination for B. duperreyi.

Yolk hormone levels in the synchronously developing eggs ofParoedura picta, a gecko with genetic sex determination

Sex steroid hormones of presumably maternal origin have been found in yolk of many oviparous vertebrates. Their effects on behavioural or physiological traits are well documented in birds, but until now are largely unknown in reptiles. The investigations of yolk steroids in reptiles have been focused mainly on species with temperature-dependent sex determination, where steroid levels are suggested to determine the sex of progeny. Here we report initial oestradiol (E2) and testosterone (T) levels in the yolk of the Madagascar ground gecko, Paroedura picta (Peters, 1854), a species with genetic sex determination. The yolk concentration was 0.39 ± 0.02 ng/g (mean ± SE) in E2, whereas the concentration of T was much higher (1.48 ± 0.06 ng/g, mean ± SE). Geckos usually lay two exceptionally large eggs per clutch; vitellogenesis and ovulation of both eggs proceed in phase. Individual two-egg clutches differed considerably in E2 and T levels. A clutch mean of E2 levels varied from 0.22 to 0.53 ng/g, whereas T levels varied from a clutch mean of 1.02 to 1.99 ng/g. Both eggs in a clutch possessed very similar levels of E2 and T. Initial yolk steroid levels thus presumably reflect maternal conditions during egg formation rather than differential allocation of hormones according to offspring sex.

Developmental sculpting of social phenotype and plasticity

Early developmental variables engender behavioral and neural variation, especially in species in which embryonic environment determines gonadal sex. In the leopard gecko, Eublepharis macularius, the incubation temperature of the egg (IncT) determines gonadal sex. Moreover, IncT affects the sexual differentiation of the individual and, consequently, within-sex variation. Individuals hatched from eggs incubated at an IncT that produces predominantly males are more masculinized than same-sex counterparts from IncTs that produce predominantly females. Here we review how gonadal sex and IncT interact to affect behavioral, endocrinological, and neural phenotype in the leopard gecko and influence phenotypic plasticity following hormone administration or social experience. We discuss the hormonal dependence of sex- and IncT-dependent behavioral and neural morphological and metabolic differences and highlight the parallels between IncT effects in geckos and intrauterine position effects in rodents. We argue that the leopard gecko is an important model of how the process of sex determination can affect sexual differentiation and of selection forces underlying the evolution of sex ratios.

Individual variation in plasma estradiol-17beta and androgen levels during egg formation in the European starling Sturnus vulgaris: implications for regulation of yolk steroids

While it is clear that maternal transfer of steroids to egg yolk can have significant effects on offspring phenotype, an unresolved question is whether females can facultatively adjust yolk hormone levels independently of their own plasma levels or whether yolk steroid levels are simply a direct consequence of temporal variation in the female's hormonal status. In part, this is because we lack detailed information about the day-to-day pattern of changes in plasma hormone levels during the laying cycle for non-domesticated birds. Here, we describe changes in plasma estradiol-17beta (E2) and androgens, throughout laying in relation to specific stages of ovarian follicular development in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris). Plasma E2 levels increased rapidly from the onset of rapid yolk development (RYD) to reach maximum levels in birds with a complete follicle hierarchy (> or = 4 yolky follicles). However, levels decreased linearly throughout the later stages of follicle development returning to pre-breeding values before the final yolky follicle was ovulated. In females with > or = 4 yolky follicles there was 10-fold variation in plasma E2 levels among individual females, but this was not related to plasma levels of the main yolk precursor vitellogenin or to the total mass of yolky follicles developing at the time of blood sampling. In contrast to E2, plasma androgen levels showed only a very gradual linear decline throughout the laying cycle from pre-RYD to clutch completion. Furthermore, androgen levels showed less individual variability: 4-fold variation among females with > or = 4 yolky follicles, although this was also independent of our measures of reproductive function. Data on inter- and intra-individual variation in female hormone levels are important to set-up a priori predictions for, and interpretation of, studies of yolk hormone levels.

Sex steroids in green anoles (Anolis carolinensis): uncoupled maternal plasma and yolking follicle concentrations, potential embryonic steroidogenesis, and evolutionary implications

The sex steroids testosterone (T) and estradiol-17beta (E2) play important roles in vertebrate reproduction and development. However, little is known about the relationship between plasma steroid levels (which can influence reproductive function) and yolk steroid levels (which can influence embryonic development) in oviparous species. Therefore, we examined the extent to which T and E2 are coupled in plasma and yolking follicles in adult females and explored the dynamics of yolk and embryo steroid content during egg incubation in green anoles (Anolis carolinensis). T and E2 levels were determined for the plasma and yolking follicles of breeding females and for whole embryos and yolks at several developmental stages by radioimmunoassay. Plasma and yolk concentrations of T and E2 were not correlated. On average, plasma T was only 30% that of plasma E2, but yolking follicle T was over 600% that of yolking follicle E2. Total yolk T and E2 content generally declined over the course of incubation. However, yolk T was an order of magnitude higher than yolk E2, and it showed a secondary peak in magnitude after approximately 75% of incubation was completed. Similarly, total embryonic T content rose by over 400% in the latter half of incubation whereas E2 did not change. These results demonstrate that plasma and yolking follicle steroid levels produced by breeding females can be uncoupled. Furthermore, embryos themselves may begin producing T, but likely not E2, during the latter stages of incubation. Thus, steroid exposure may be independently shaped by selection to serve both reproductive and developmental functions.