Science News Week of Feb. 5, 2000; Vol. 157, No. 6 pg.87

DDT treatment turns male fish into mothers

(DDT turning boys into girls)

Injecting into fish eggs an estrogen-mimicking form of the pesticide DDT transforms genetically male medaka fish into apparent females able to lay eggs that produce young.

References:

Edmunds, J.S.G., R.A. McCarthy, and J.S. Ramsdell. 2000.

Permanent and functional male-to-female sex reversal in d-rR strain medaka (Oryzias laptipes) following egg microinjection of o, p´-DDT. Environmental Health Perspectives

108(March):219.

Further Readings:

Adler, T. 1995. Fishy sex. Science News 148(Oct. 21):266.

Raloff, J. 1999. Pollutant waits to smite salmon at sea. Science News 155(May 8):293.

______. 1997. Is synergy of estrogen mimics an illusion? Science News 152(Aug. 2):69.

______. 1995. Beyond estrogens. Science News 148(July 15):44.

______. 1994. The gender benders. Science News 145(Jan. 8):24.

Sources:

Marius Brouwer
University of Southern Mississippi
Institute of Marine Sciences
703 East Beach Drive
Ocean Springs, MS 39564

J. Stewart G. Edmunds
NOAA National Ocean Service, Coastal Research Branch
Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research
219 Fort Johnson Road
Charleston, SC 29439

Louis J. Guillette Jr.
University of Florida, Department of Zoology
P.O. Box 118525
Gainesville, FL 32611

Diana M. Papoulias
U.S. Geological Survey
4200 New Haven Road
Columbia, MO 65201

John S. Ramsdell
NOAA National Ocean Service, Coastal Research Branch
Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research
219 Fort Johnson Road
Charleston, SC 29439

Frederick S. vom Saal
University of Missouri, Division of Biology
114 Lefevre Hall
Columbia, MO 65211

From Science News, Vol. 157, No. 6, February 5, 2000, p. 87.