The Chemistry Behind a Fish's Sex Change

Researchers have offered a chemical explanation for sex change in a tropical fish. ↓↓More info and references below↓↓

For a tropical fish called the bluehead wrasse, sex isn’t always permanent. When a group of the fish loses its dominant male, the biggest female rapidly changes sex, taking on distinctive male coloring and producing mature sperm in as little as 8 days. Although this change is well documented, the molecular mechanisms that drive it have remained unclear. Now, an international group of researchers has offered a chemical explanation for the transformation after analyzing tissue samples from transitioning fish.

Read more:

Stress, novel sex genes, and epigenetic reprogramming orchestrate socially controlled sex change | Science Advances
https://advances.sciencemag.or....g/content/5/7/eaaw70

Music: “English Country Garden” by Aaron Kenny.

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