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Copy from (Sex reversal)

Sex reversal is the phenomenon whereby organisms change one sex for another in regard to their primary sex (male or female) determined by any of the sex-determination systems. Sex reversal is widely distributed across taxa regardless of their primary sex-determination system (e.g. GSD, Environmental sex determination (ESD), Temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD)).

Sex reversal can be induced artificially by Endocrine disruptors like pollutants, including herbicides, which can act as estrogen promoters or inhibitors, which would respectively increase or decrease the number of female offspring, through controlling aromatase.

However, much is still unknown about temperature-dependent sex determination, so the exact mechanism for sex reversal is unknown.

Research in wild populations of the North American green frog has demonstrated that sex reversal is common. This work shows that genetic females sex reverse into phenotypic males and that genetic males sex reverse into phenotypic females, providing evidence that sex reversal can be bidirectional in amphibians. While endocrine disrupting chemical contamination is known from laboratory experiments to cause sex reversal in amphibians, sex reversal in green frogs occurs irrespective of contamination, suggesting sex reversal is a natural process in amphibians.