Hermaphrodite

Approximately 0.2%-2% of human live births can be classified as hermaphrodites or intersexu-als. Some of these contain some cells with XX (female) and some with XY (male) chromosomes, possibly as chimera (see box. Section 6.16). Some of these have other unusual chromosomal patterns such as a single X chromosome (called Turner syndrome). Some may also have responded to fetal levels of estrogen or testosterone (see Sections 6.6.5 and 6.12.9). Intersexual children have the sex organs of both sexes, which don t often develop normally. 

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Female sexual development and behaviour in mammals occurs by default and requires no ovarian secretion, and it is only in genetic males that the testis can secrete hormones which destroy this female pattern and superimpose that of the male. Sexual differentiation is not so well defined in fish, and larval exposure to both synthetic estrogens and androgens is widely used in aquaculture to produce monosex cultures. Endocrine disruption of sexual differentiation in fish may therefore reflect both the complexity and diversity of such processes between different species. Some care is required in use of the terms hermaphrodite and sex-reversal since a true hermaphrodite has both functional testes and ovaries and a sex-reversed fish is fully functional as its final sex—both produce the appropriate viable gametes. Such functional sex-reversal is not possible in mammals, but in some species of fish it is the normal developmental pattern. In most of the cases of hermaphroditism or sex-reversal reported in the non-scientific press, there is evidence only for a few ovarian follicles within a functional testis. This may be considered as feminisation or a form of intersex, and is very clearly endocrine disruption, but it is certainly neither sex-reversal nor hermaphroditism. In some cases the terms have even been used to infer induction of a single female characteristic such as production of yolk-protein by males. 

Zwistigkeit, /. difference, dispute, discord. Zwitter, m. hermaphrodite hybrid bastard mongrel (Petrog.) zwitter. -ion, n. hybrid ion, amphoteric ion. 

The negative effects of TBT have been observed in the bivalve larval development of Crassostrea gigas, Mylilus edulisf Venus gallina, Spams aurata, in Nassarius reticulate and in the hermaphroditic snails Phisa fontinalis and Adelomelon brasiliana Since TBT exerts a variety of toxic actions on some mollusks and fishes , an adverse effect of TBT on human health is a real threat. ... 

More controversially, endocrine disruption as a consequence of exposure to the herbicide atrazine (2-chloro-4-ethylamine-6-isopropylamine-s-triazine), one of the most widely used herbicides in the world, has also been hypothesized to explain various adverse biological effects in frog populations in the United States. Exposure to atrazine in the laboratory at high concentrations, far exceeding those found in the natural environment, has been reported to induce external deformities in the anuran species Rana pipiens, Rana sylvatica, and Bufo americanus (Allran and Karasov 2001). Studies by Hayes et al. have suggested that atrazine can induce hermaphroditism in amphibians at environmentally relevant concentrations (Hayes et al. 2002 Hayes et al. 2003). Laboratory studies with atrazine also indicated the herbicide... 

Hayes, T.B., Collins, A., and Lee, M. et al. (2002). Hermaphroditic, demasculinized frogs after exposure to the herbicide atrazine at low ecologically relevant doses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 99, 5476-5480. 

Hayes, T., Hasten, K., and Tsui, M. et al. (2003). Atrazine-induced hermaphroditism at 0.1 ppb in American leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) Laboratory and field evidence. Environmental Health Perspectives 111, 568-575. 

Hermaphrodite lying on a sarcophagus with falling rain ( cibatio ) in Johann Daniel Mylius, Philosophia Reformata (Frankfurt Lucas Jennis, 1622), 243. With the permission of the... 

Hermaphrodite Child of the Sun and Moon. rhttp //www.levitv.com/alchemv/hermaph.html1. 

Frater L. The coming of Elias Artist chains of transmission Forge of Tubalcain, Phoenix of the Nephilim. Part I - Awakening Pansophia Hermaphrodite, Spiritus Mundi. 

McLean, Adam. Hermetic meditation Number 5. The Hermaphrodite. Hermetic J, no. 5 (Autumn 1979) 8. 

Walton, Michael T., Robert M. Fineman and Phyllis J. Walton. Holy hermaphrodites and medical facts the depiction of hermaphrodites in alchemy and medicine. CaudaPavonis 18, no. 1-2 (Spring Fall 1999) 32-36. 

Titche, L.L. Into the Millenium the theme of the Hermaphrodite in Robert Musil s DerMann ohne Eigenschaften. Oxford Germ Stud, no. 7 (1973) 143-160. 

Experiments were also carried out injecting [3 -3H]xylosyl-MTA. The results indicated that the molecule has a very low turnover rate in D. verrucosa, since 96% of the recovered radioactivity after 24 h was associated with xylosyl-MTA. Accordingly, it was observed [126] that xylosyl-MTA is resistant to the enzyme MTA-phosphorylase which cleaves MTA but not the xylose analog, which therefore accumulates in the animal. Since xylosyl-MTA is mainly concentrated in the hermaphrodite gland of D. verrucosa and is very abundant in the eggmasses [103], it may play a role in the reproductive biology of D. verrucosa. 

Lin, H.C. and W.A. Dunson. 1993. The effect of salinity on the acute toxicity of cadmium to the tropical, estuarine, hermaphroditic fish, Rivulus marmoratus a comparison of Cd, Cu, and Zn tolerance with Fundulus heteroclitus. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 25 41-47. 

Johnigk SA, Ehlers RU. Endotokia matricida in hermaphrodites of Heterorhabditis spp. and the effect of the food supply. Nematol. 1999 1 717-726. 

Typical experimental data are shown in Table 52. As can be seen, the diaxial conformation is preferred for the cases in which adjacent substituent bonds are hermaphroditic, i.e. simultaneously very good donor and very good acceptor bonds. 

Most species of angiosperms produce hermaphroditic flowers. The unisexuality in some plants most often results from developmentally programmed abortion or selective reduction in sex organ primordia. In dicots, higher levels of auxins, cytokinins, and ethylene usually correlate with female sex expression and in most of them the femaleness is mainly promoted by ethylene. ... 

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