Temperature dependent sex determination in the turtle Trachemys scripta
Sex determination is the process by which and original bipotential gonad differentiate into either a testis or ovaries. While mammals and birds determine their sex solely by genetic clues (genetic sex determination, GSD), other vertebrates like the turtle Trachemys scripta are influenced by environmental factors, like temperature (environmental sex determination, ESD). In both cases an initially bipotential gonad develops into either testes or ovaries in response to GSD or ESD cues. In order to shed light into the differences and similarities between sex determination systems we performed single-cell RNA-seq on Trachemys scripta developing gonads during the sex determination window. Overall design: We performed 10x single-cell RNA seq experiments on dissected Trachemys scripta gonads of three different developmental stages: 15 , 18 and 23. They come from embryos incubated either at male or female producing temperatures (FPT - 32ºC, MPT - 26ºC).