Atrazine is one of the most widely used agricultural herbicides in the world, and is wreaking havoc on the sex life of frogs. When males of amphibians are exposed to small amounts of that substance, 75% of them is chemically sterilized and 10% ... is converted directly into a female!
That's the conclusion of a study by the University of Berkeley (California) published in the journal 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' and has been conducted in laboratory conditions with copies of an African species ('Xenopus laevis').
According to Professor Tyrone B. Hayes, director of the study, contact with the pesticide condemnation of frogs to infertility. "frog males lose testosterone and all that this hormone controls, including the sperm. So fertility is so low that less than 10% in some cases " says Hayes, referring to the copies that they are incapable of reproduction.
But there were others who, directly transformed into females. According to the study, the pesticide thereby alter the hormonal system of the frogs that some of the males exposed to it become feminized and females.
Gustavo and a friend
In nature, hermaphrodites of male frogs in his youth. The study found that adult males become females spent in contact with atrazine. This, by acting on the endocrine system attenuates hormones that give the male characters, and thus enables enhanced expression of feminine values. In the work conducted in the laboratory, males authentic, (which will, I ask myself many times) and procreated mated with males feminized.
occurs to me more than one application ...
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