*why* does temp sexing work?

[HepCatMoe]

in humans your sex is dependent on what chromosome you get from your dad, x or y.

but in geckos, they get both from their dad?

can someone explain this to me?

[acpart]

I'm going to take a guess at this in the hopes someone with a better reptile genetics background corrects any mistake I may make. Humans inherit their sex chromosomes from both parents. As far as I understand it, it is these chromosomes that tell the body which hormones to release during fetal development to create the reproductive organs. In humans, interestingly enough, there can be some hormonal anomalies in the fetus that prevent the correct hormones from being released, resulting in babies with ambiguous gender (but that's another post). I am guessing that in reptiles, there are no gender chromosomes and it is the incubation temperature that causes the release of hormones that result in a male or a female.

Please let me know if I've got that wrong.

Aliza

[HepCatMoe]

after doing some quick googling, it appears that the current theory is what aliza is saying. mainly that many reptiles do not have sex chromosomes.

however, i did read the abstract of an article here which said that it doesnt have to be either temp determined or chromosome determined, but it is posssible to be a combination of both.

aliza, while its true that humans inherit chromosomes from both parents, it does not matter what sex chromosome you inherit from your mother, becuase it will always be an X chromosome.

[Bongo]

Interesting.

[gitrdone0420]

That is interesting. I never really thought about this, I just took it for what it was. But now I know! yay, knowledge is power =] lol. Thanks for posting