title: Embryonic sex steroid hormones accumulate in the eggshell of loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta).
abstract: Steroids hormones such as estradiol-17β (E2) and testosterone (T) are involved in gonadal differentiation of oviparous animals with temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), and are greatly distributed. This hypothesizes that these embryonic steroid hormones probably accumulate in the eggshell throughout blood or/and chorioallantoic fluid in sea turtle species with TSD, producing females at higher temperature. To demonstrate this hypothesis, concentrations of E2 and T in the blood plasma from the hatchling loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) and in their eggshells were measured by radioimmunoassay. In the present study we propose that both concentrations of E2 and T in the blood plasma are correlated with amounts of these sex steroids in the eggshell. Moreover, contents of E2 in the eggshell showed a significant positive correlation with mean incubation temperatures during a thermosensitive period in the experimental nests, whereas T contents in the eggshell did not. Taken together, these findings indicated that embryonic E2 and T that accumulated in the eggshell can be extracted and measured. Furthermore, the present study suggested that contents of E2 in the eggshell may differ between male and female, and monitoring of these steroids is a useful method to identify the sex of loggerhead sea turtle hatchling.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Production Science, United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan.
authors.forename: Shohei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.affiliation: Kamogawa Sea World, Chiba 296-0041, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshimichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.affiliation: Kamogawa Sea World, Chiba 296-0041, Japan.
authors.forename: Akihisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Osawa
authors.affiliation: Kamogawa Sea World, Chiba 296-0041, Japan.
authors.forename: Etsuko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Katsumata
authors.affiliation: Seiko Epson Corporation, Nagano 392-8502, Japan.
authors.forename: Isuke
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Karaki
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Veterinary Physiology, Institute of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo 183-0054, Japan.
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagaoka
authors.affiliation: Kamogawa Sea World, Chiba 296-0041, Japan; Laboratory of Veterinary Physiology, Institute of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo 183-0054, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Taya
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Veterinary Physiology, Institute of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo 183-0054, Japan. Electronic address: gen@cc.tuat.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Gen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Watanabe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004958:Estradiol / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012732:Sex Determination Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D013739:Testosterone / Q000097:blood*; D014426:Turtles / Q000196:embryology* / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones; D013739:Testosterone; D004958:Estradiol
keywords: Accumulation; Eggshell; Estradiol-17β; Loggerhead sea turtle; Sex identification; Testosterone