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Why is bidirectional sex change rare?
1Department of Information Systems Creation, Faculty of Engineering, Kanagawa University, Yokohama 221-8686, Japan, ORCID, 0000-0001-9606-7899.
Journal of Theoretical Biology
|May 26, 2018
Summary
Coral reef fish sex change, known as sequential hermaphroditism, is often unidirectional due to hormonal dynamics. Social status influences hormone levels, making sex changes irreversible and rare in the wild.
Area of Science:
- Marine Biology
- Endocrinology
- Behavioral Ecology
Background:
- Coral reef fish exhibit sequential hermaphroditism, including protogynous (female-to-male) and bidirectional sex changes.
- Bidirectional sex change, where males can revert to females, is rarely observed in natural settings despite occurring experimentally.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explain the rarity of bidirectional sex change in coral reef fish.
- To investigate the hormonal dynamics underlying sex expression and social status.
Main Methods:
- Mathematical modeling of hormone dynamics (estradiol and testosterone) influenced by social status factor (SF).
- Analysis of bistability and hysteresis in hormone expression levels.
Main Results:
- High social status (high SF) leads to high testosterone and low estradiol (male phenotype).
- Low social status (low SF) leads to high estradiol and low testosterone (female phenotype).
- Hormonal dynamics exhibit bistability and hysteresis, explaining irreversible sex changes.
Conclusions:
- Hormonal feedback loops and social status changes create hysteresis, making sex changes effectively unidirectional in natural conditions.
- The model explains why coral reef fish may only show unidirectional sex change, as the transition to a new sex is irreversible.
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