SEX DETERMINATION
Sex matters in aquaculture! In several species of shellfish, including the Pacific oyster and the Manila clam, females grow faster than males. Growing all-female populations could raise production substantially and would provide another means, in addition to triploidy, of ensuring that farmed stocks could not interact reproductively with wild populations. These two papers demonstrate our long-standing interest in this topic and advances in our understanding in the genetic mechanisms that determine sex. In the Pacific oyster, sex is not determined by chromosomes, as in humans and most animals, but by a number of genes that is still being investigated.
Genetic determinants of protandric sex in the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas Thunberg
Guo, X., D. Hedgecock, W. K. Hershberger, K. Cooper, and S. K. Allen, Jr. 1998. Genetic determinants of protandric sex in the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas Thunberg. Evolution 52:394-402.
Sex Determination: Genetic Models for Oysters.
Hedrick, P. W., and D. Hedgecock. 2010. Sex determination: Genetic models for oysters. Journal of Heredity 101: 602-611.