SFEBES2021 Poster Presentations Late Breaking (60 abstracts)
A Novel LC-MS/MS Method for the Simultaneous Detection of Multiple Steroids in Plasma and Tissue Lysates, used to verify Cell Autonomous Sex Identity in birds
Scott Denham , Victoria Betterton , Jason Ioannidis , Patricia Lee , Debiao Zhao , Joanna Simpson , Sarah Caughey , Ian Dunn , Mike Clinton , Peter Wilson & Natalie Homer
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Cell autonomous sex identity (CASI) of birds is the concept that sex-steroids have little or no effect on the development of secondary sexual characteristics in birds, and that sexual dimorphisms are determined by the sex-chromosome content of cells in individual tissues. In avian species males have a ZZ sex chromosome, while females are ZW. Sexual dimorphisms in chickens, such as muscle mass, comb and wattle size and hackles and spur development are believed to be determined by the sex chromosome content of cells in individual tissues. We wanted to compare steroid profiles in male birds, female birds and female birds with sex-reversed gonads following treatment with Fadrozole an aromatase inhibitor which prevents the conversion of androgens to estrogens, and commonly leads to ovary-to-testis sex reversal or ovotestis formation in birds. To do this we developed and validated a sensitive, automated LC-MS/MS method to profile estrogens, androgens, progesterones and glucocorticoids - in total 18 steroids including estradiol, estrone, androstenedione, testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, progesterone - in plasma (200 µL) and tissue from chickens to investigate CASI. Here we assessed the effects of blocking estrogen synthesis on steroidogenesis in the chicken in embryo gonads and birds at 10 weeks and sexual maturity (26 weeks). We successfully measured steroid levels in the embryonic gonads of male and female chickens. We also profiled circulating steroids in chickens and found that those produced by the sex-reversed female (ZW) gonad is indistinguishable from that produced by a typical male (ZZ) gonad, and clearly demonstrated that, unlike mammals, gonadal steroids have minimal (if any) effect on the development of secondary sexual characteristics. We showed that both male and female embryonic gonads are steroidogenically active during the earliest stages of gonadal medulla differentiation. This study highlights an evolutionary divide in the role of steroid between birds and mammals.
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Endocrine Abstracts
ISSN 1470-3947 (print) | ISSN 1479-6848 (online)
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