Male or female? A Spare Gene Became the Master Sex Switch in Frogs | Earth.com

A gene duplicated in the evolutionary past has been shown to act as the master switch that determines whether embryos develop as male or female in the African clawed frog.

That finding reveals how evolution can reassign the most sensitive biological decisions without breaking reproduction.

Gene controls frog sex

The African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) is a fully aquatic amphibian best known for its flat body, powerful legs, and long history as a laboratory model.

In this species, early development hinges on a gene called dm-w, whose presence redirects the entire sexual pathway toward female formation.

Tracking that shift, evolutionary geneticist Ben Evans documented how this switch emerged while working with long-term frog lines at McMaster University and the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL).

Although distant on a human timescale, the shift occurred roughly 20 million years ago, which counts as recent for a fundamental change in vertebrate development.

Read more of the article here. 

Source: Male or female? A Spare Gene Became the Master Sex Switch in Frogs | Earth.com