Tuesday Birdery: Bilateral Gynandromorphs
This is an interesting post from Grrl Scientist about gender-bending birds, like the chicken pictured here, that are sexually dimorphic individuals—one half male, one half female. Split right down the middle. It’s a freakish but actually fairly common phenomenon.
The gist of the research findings on these bilateral gynandropmorphs is that avian cells have a genetically programmed sexual identity that is not subject to the influence of developmental factors (hormones and the like) the way mammalian cells are during embryonic development. Our cells can switch sex roles based on cues received within the cellular environment. Not so for chickens. So, when human cells have genetic aberrations in their coding for male or female identity during development, the cells can often still “make up for it” and form a relatively normal human male or female. Apparently, no such compromise is available for chickens.
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