Atrazine Turns Male Frogs Into Female Frogs & Homosexuals-Can Happen to Humans

https://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=11-P13-00001&segmentID=7

Comment:  In my opinion it is ALL BY Design as the Globalists Control Pesticide Companies & They Have a Depopulation Agenda.

Air Date: Week of January 7, 2011

Tyrone Hayes’ at work in his lab in Berkeley (Photo: Ashley Ahearn)

Scientists are continuing to sound the alarm about some common chemicals, including the herbicide atrazine, and link them to changes in reproductive health and development. Endocrine disrupting toxic chemicals have been found to feminize male frogs and cause homosexual behavior. Ashley Ahearn reports on how these substances may be affecting human development and behavior.

Transcript

CURWOOD: It’s Living on Earth, I’m Steve Curwood. From the carpets in our living rooms to the liners of our canned goods we’re exposed to manmade chemicals every day. We use synthetic chemicals for everything from plastics to pesticides. They eventually make their way from our farms, households or industry into the environment – and into our bodies. And they may be affecting our reproductive health – indeed, even our sexual preferences. Producer Ashley Ahearn reports.

[DOOR OF FROG LAB ROOM OPENS, VENTILATOR FAN RUNNING]

HAYES: So these are the South African Claw frog.

[WATER SLOSHING IN TANK]

AHEARN: Tyrone Hayes peers into a large gray fiberglass tank like a little boy looking for critters in a tide pool. Below the surface, fat greenish-yellow frogs swim around– their bulging eyes looking up at us through the water.

HAYES: So in this tank there are 40 brothers that are not exposed to atrazine and in this tank there are 40 brothers who were exposed to atrazine and so we can compare these two tubs and look at the number of homosexual pairs. This for example is one that has lots of gay males, homosexual pairs in it because it’s a treated tank.

AHEARN: One morning when one of Hayes’ PhD students came in to feed the specimens at 7 AM she noticed some male-on-male copulation going on in a tank that had been treated with atrazine – the second most commonly used herbicide in the U.S. Once Hayes heard about this he started collecting data. He exposed some of his frogs to the same level of atrazine that the Environmental Protection Agency says is safe for drinking water, and he kept the rest of the frogs atrazine-free.

HAYES: So what you can see is that there’s a seven-fold difference in the atrazine treated animals.

AHEARN: Homosexual behavior has been recorded in over 450 different species of animals – from bison to beetles. But Hayes’ research showed that atrazine exposure made these frogs 7 times more prone to homosexual behavior and10 percent of the exposed frogs actually became feminized.

[FOOTSTEPS TO LAB]

AHERN: To explain what he meant by “feminized” Hayes brought me back to his office and pulled up a picture on his laptop of a frog that had been exposed to the herbicide.

HAYES: This is an animal that looked like a female on the outside. But on the inside it had large testis, so these are testis, and this is an oviduct. So, this is the equivalent of a man with a uterus.

AHEARN: These frogs aren’t just behaving like females – they’re actually producing eggs and when those eggs are fertilized by normal male frogs, the babies grow up to be seemingly normal frogs. Let me say that again: the male frogs are having babies. And there are consequences. HAYES: …because they don’t have a female chromosome the females that are genetically males can only produce other males so 100 percent of their offspring would be males.

AHEARN: And more male frogs means fewer babies down the road. Hayes says this might be one reason that populations of frogs and other amphibians all over the world are going down. HAYES: In our work with frogs for example we can go into the field. We’ve done this, others have done this. There’s another study that just came out in Canada showing that if you go to an environment that’s contaminated with atrazine you find more hermaphroditic or abnormally developed males.

AHEARN: The reproductive problems Hayes is seeing in his specimens aren’t limited to frogs. Studies on rats, reptiles and even human cells exposed to atrazine showed similar results. Recently, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey found intersex fish in one third of the waterways they tested across the United States.

And atrazine is not the only chemical to blame for causing widespread reproductive health problems. It’s a member of a family of chemicals known as endocrine disruptors.

COLBORN: Well basically they’re chemicals that have been around for quite a while, we just didn’t know what they were doing.

AHEARN: Dr. Theo Colborn was one of the first to sound the alarm on endocrine disruptors and how they affect reproductive health and development when she co-authored the book “Our Stolen Future” in the late 90’s. At first, people saw her as a bit of a radical, but over a decade later the government is channeling more and more funding towards researching these chemicals and there’s a new act in Congress that will require better testing of suspected endocrine disruptors.

Colborn says it’s about time. We’re constantly exposed to them.

COLBORN: They’re in plastics. They’re in our toys, the children’s toys. If you go to your kitchen sink and under your bathroom sink and look at the cleaning compounds that are there. The cosmetics. The toiletries. They’re just about in everything because they’ve made every one of these products much nicer. They last longer. They’re preservatives. They’re fire retardants.

AHEARN: The endocrine system is made up of a series of glands throughout the body that control the hormonal messages that direct development. By imitating natural hormones– such as estrogen and androgen – endocrine disrupting chemicals prevent the body from sending and receiving those messages. Dr. Stephen Rosenthal, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California San Francisco, broke down some basic human developmental biology for me. He says in the womb, we all start out developing as girls.

ROSENTHAL: If you consider the gonads, which basically is the other name for the testis or the ovaries, in any baby – either boy or a girl – that, basically, these gonads are pre-programmed to become ovaries unless there’s an overriding signal that tells them to become testis.

AHEARN: If you’re a boy that over-riding signal comes from a gene on your Y-chromosome. It tells your gonads to become testis, instead of ovaries, and to start producing testosterone and androgen. Those hormones then travel through the body and hook up with receptors in cells.

ROSENTHAL: That sets off a chain of events inside a cell. It’s like if you need a key and an ignition to start a car right, so the key goes into the ignition and then the whole thing can turn and the car goes on.

AHEARN: The car “going on” would equate to normal development of a fetus. Now picture some chewing gum in the ignition. The key won’t fit. The car won’t start – or, as Rosenthal explains – normal masculine development won’t proceed.

ROSENTHAL: If there is some agent, some environmental disruptor that interferes with the normal functioning of the Androgen Receptor then it’s very likely that in a male there will be incomplete masculinization of the external genitalia.

[SOUND OF FROG TANK ROOM]

AHEARN: The atrazine-exposed male frogs in Tyrone Hayes’ lab look just like females, which are much larger than the typical male African Claw Frog and have smaller breeding glands and differently formed feet and gonads. Tyrone Hayes says just because frogs aren’t people that doesn’t mean we should ignore the warnings.

HAYES: People go, well, it’s frogs. I go, yeah but look, the estrogen that works in this frog is exactly, chemically exactly, the same as the estrogen that regulates female reproduction. Exactly the same testosterone that’s in these frogs regulating their larynx or their voice box or their breeding glands or their sperm count is exactly the same hormone in rats and in us.

AHEARN: So, what about us? Could endocrine disruptors be having feminizing effects in humans? No one knows for sure, but some believe that rising rates of one birth defect could be an indicator.

[CAFETERIA SOUNDS AT OAKLAND CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL]

AHEARN: Dr. Laurence Baskin is a pediatric urologist with the University of California, San Francisco but he practices here at the Oakland Children’s Hospital part time. Today he’s performing back-to-back surgeries – and a very specific type of surgery. Baskin specializes in correcting hypospadias – the second most common birth defect in the country behind heart disease.

BASKIN: About one in 125 to one in 250 newborn males has an abnormality in their genitalia that could be described as hypospadias – and what I mean by that is penile curvature, abnormal urethra and an abnormal foreskin and putting that together that’s what hypospadias is defined as.

AHEARN: More babies are born with hypospadias than Down’s syndrome or cleft palate, and some research suggests that rates of hypospadias have increased in the past few decades. Baskin and others in his field suspect environmental exposures may contribute to hypospadias. Think back to the gummed up lock and key that Stephen Rosenthal described. All fetuses are programmed to develop ovaries unless they’re told otherwise by certain hormones like testosterone and androgen.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals, like atrazine for example, could gum up the receptors for those hormonal messengers that tell a fetus to develop into a baby boy– or as Baskin explains – prevent the fetus from fully masculinizing.

BASKIN: The penis wouldn’t develop. It would be arrested – meaning that your urethral opening would be lower down in the penile shaft, the penis normally as it develops is curved and it straightens out so in Hypospadias it wouldn’t have straightened out and the foreskin would only have formed on the top of the penis, wouldn’t be able to come down to the bottom because that lock or that hormone receptor would be blocked or disrupted by the environmental toxin.

AHEARN: Ok, so if Tyrone Hayes is finding feminizing effects in frogs who are exposed to atrazine – one of these environmental toxins that Baskin is talking about – are there some parallels to be drawn in human beings? Baskin pauses for just a split second before responding.

BASKIN: Humans clearly are not frogs, but the theory is correct. And in this case we would agree with Dr. Hayes that an environmental disruptor, something in the environment, chemical toxin or medication could certainly be a risk factor for Hypospadias.

AHEARN: Baskin says the majority of hypospadias can be fixed with a relatively quick surgery that can make life a lot easier for the child later on.

BASKIN: I think growing up as a teenager and not having normal genitalia would be tough enough, even if you have normal genitalia, just for regular emotional and sexual development so that’s really the major reason to fix it, so kids can be normal.

[ELEVATOR DOOR, HALLWAY, PHONE RINGS]

AHEARN: But “normal” is a loaded term for some. Dr. Tiger Howard Devore is a sex therapist and clinical psychologist in New York City.

DEVORE: Isn’t it great that some doctor can tell you what’s normal? I love that.

AHEARN: For Devore, this is a personal story.

DEVORE: One of my earliest memories is of being in a hospital and dealing with some physician taking bandages off of my genitals and watching my parents respond in obvious fear about whatever it was that this guy was doing. I was probably maybe three. But I had my first surgery when I was three months old and I had at least one surgery every year after that until I was at least 12.

AHEARN: Devore was born with severe hypospadias. All told, he’s had 20 operations on his penis. It wasn’t until college that Devore came to terms with his condition and decided to devote himself to helping others born with Hypospadias. As a psychologist, he says that if you follow Rosenthal and Baskin’s logic and look at hypospadias as incomplete masculinization of the genitals…

DEVORE: … the same thing probably happened in the brain in the areas where there’s sexual differentiation of the brain. Now it doesn’t make a person gay, lesbian, bisexual or transsexual but it certainly makes it easier for that person to be any of those things.

AHEARN: There is no peer-reviewed scientific research to back up Devore’s claim about sexual orientation and hypospadias. However, the Hypospadias and Epispadias Association – a group which works to raise awareness about these two similar genital conditions – conducted an online survey of roughly 700 men – both with hypospadias and without. The survey found that men with hypospadias were 15 percent more likely to describe themselves as gay.

I told Devore about Tyrone Hayes – the biologist at Berkeley with the homosexual and feminized frogs – and I asked him what he thought about those findings in relation to people. He said the connection makes sense…

Tyrone Hayes’ at work in his lab in Berkeley (Photo: Ashley Ahearn)

DEVORE: …but we can’t prove it because we can’t experiment on human beings. We can certainly look at populational [sic] models and say this looks like it’s pretty closely related, we probably should take some actions here to see if it is, but we can’t say that we know the whole story yet.

AHEARN: Devore says there’s a whole lot more to someone’s sexual orientation than the chemicals they may have been exposed to during development.

DEVORE: This isn’t just about where you stick your things. This isn’t just about how you get good sensation in your body. This is about who you fall in love with. This is about a whole complex set of social factors.

[BOOTS ON WOODEN PORCH]

AHEARN: It’s a cool rainy day in Massachusetts when I pull into Alice’s dirt driveway and walk up the steps to her log cabin style home.

[KNOCKING ON DOOR]

ALICE: Hey! You found us out here in the woods.

SON: When you come here, where are the chocolate chips?

ALICE: Are you going to melt them? Ok.

[MICROWAVE DOOR OPENS AND SHUTS, BUTTONS BEEP AND MICROWAVE STARTS UP]

AHEARN: At seven years old, Alice’s son’s red head is just above counter level.

[FINISHES BEEPS, DOOR OPENS AND SHUTS AGAIN]

SON: Aaaah. Done!

AHEARN: He gets a spoon to mush the melted chocolate chips around, and comes back out to sit with his mom and me at the kitchen table.

ALICE: I mean, I talk to him about it personally. He knows he has hypospadias and he knows he’s met other people that have it.

AHEARN: Since her son was born, Alice has worked to raise awareness about hypospadias. She also counsels mothers of kids with hypospadias. But she says more attention needs to be paid to figuring out what causes this condition, and communicating that information with the public.

ALICE: What concerns me the most is that the information is there, that these environmental estrogens are having effects… it’s common sense, I mean, if this is what’s happening, why isn’t the information getting out there? I guess my big question that I have is why can’t people talk about it? Why can’t we talk about it as a society?

AHEARN: Talking about problems with reproductive health is something society has never handled well. And perhaps because most hypospadias can be corrected with surgery, very few doctors have raised questions about the underlying causes of this birth defect.

But endocrine disrupting chemicals show up in almost 100 percent of the population, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and many of these chemicals are known to disrupt normal reproductive system development in animals – think back to Tyrone Hayes’ frogs here.

So I asked Dr. Theo Colborn, who’s been studying endocrine disruptors for over 30 years, if she thought our environmental exposures could be affecting our reproductive health. Or more specifically, given what we’re seeing with hypospadias, I asked her, do you think we are feminizing our baby boys?

COLBORN: I definitely do. I think there’s a certain percentage that are definitely being affected and there’s no denying it.

AHEARN: It’s one thing to say that exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals may contribute to hypospadias. It’s quite another to say that a person’s sexual orientation could be shaped, in part, by their environmental exposures. That, Colborn says, is an explosive issue. No one wants to touch that research.

COLBORN: If you were to ask for dollars for that you wouldn’t get the money. I mean, you would be laughed out of your chair, believe me. It’s that sensitive.

AHEARN: Sensitive, and therefore still very early in terms of scientific findings and evidence. But important questions are now being raised. What effects might chemicals in our environment – particularly those to which we are exposed before birth – have on our reproductive health and the expression of sexual identity? For Living on Earth, I’m Ashley Ahearn.

Links

A study that looks at hypospadias and endocrine disruptors.

Hypospadias and Epispadias Association

Dr. Tiger Howard Devore

Tyrone Hayes’ research: Hermaphroditic, demasculinized frogs after exposure to the herbicide atrazine at low ecologically relevant doses

Tyrone Hayes’ research: Herbicides: Feminization of male frogs in the wild

ArticlePDF Available

Atrazine induces complete feminization and chemical castration in male African clawed frogs (Xenopus Laevis)

Authors:

Abstract and Figures

The herbicide atrazine is one of the most commonly applied pesticides in the world. As a result, atrazine is the most commonly detected pesticide contaminant of ground, surface, and drinking water. Atrazine is also a potent endocrine disruptor that is active at low, ecologically relevant concentrations. Previous studies showed that atrazine adversely affects amphibian larval development. The present study demonstrates the reproductive consequences of atrazine exposure in adult amphibians. Atrazine-exposed males were both demasculinized (chemically castrated) and completely feminized as adults. Ten percent of the exposed genetic males developed into functional females that copulated with unexposed males and produced viable eggs. Atrazine-exposed males suffered from depressed testosterone, decreased breeding gland size, demasculinized/feminized laryngeal development, suppressed mating behavior, reduced spermatogenesis, and decreased fertility. These data are consistent with effects of atrazine observed in other vertebrate classes. The present findings exemplify the role that atrazine and other endocrine-disrupting pesticides likely play in global amphibian declines.
Atrazine feminized exposed males. Cloaca (A-C) and gonads (D-F) for control male (A and D), atrazine-exposed male (B and E), and atrazineexposed female (C and F) ZZ animals (genetic males). (G) Atrazine-induced female (genetic male, ZZ) copulating with an unexposed male sibling. (H) Same pair as in G, producing eggs. Eggs (H) were viable and produced larvae that survived to metamorphosis and adulthood. Yellow coloration (F) is the result of fixation in Bouin's solution. Brackets (B and C) indicate protruding cloacal labia. (Scale bar in A applies to A-C; in D applies to D and E.)
Atrazine feminized exposed males. Cloaca (A-C) and gonads (D-F) for control male (A and D), atrazine-exposed male (B and E), and atrazineexposed female (C and F) ZZ animals (genetic males). (G) Atrazine-induced female (genetic male, ZZ) copulating with an unexposed male sibling. (H) Same pair as in G, producing eggs. Eggs (H) were viable and produced larvae that survived to metamorphosis and adulthood. Yellow coloration (F) is the result of fixation in Bouin’s solution. Brackets (B and C) indicate protruding cloacal labia. (Scale bar in A applies to A-C; in D applies to D and E.)
… 
Atrazine-induced females expressed aromatase in their gonads. (Top) DMRT-1 and DM-W genes from a representative control and an atrazine-exposed adult male (M) and female (F). Morphologic sex was assigned on the basis of the presence of testes (males) or ovaries (females). (Middle and Bottom) Cyp-19 aromatase expression from gonads of the same animals genotyped at Top, along with the control gene, rpL8.
Atrazine-induced females expressed aromatase in their gonads. (Top) DMRT-1 and DM-W genes from a representative control and an atrazine-exposed adult male (M) and female (F). Morphologic sex was assigned on the basis of the presence of testes (males) or ovaries (females). (Middle and Bottom) Cyp-19 aromatase expression from gonads of the same animals genotyped at Top, along with the control gene, rpL8.
… 
Atrazine-demasculinized male morphology as shown in the nuptial glands and the larynx. (A and B) Forearms, showing nuptial pads from control (A) and atrazine-exposed males (B). Note the reduced nuptial pads in the atrazine-exposed male (B). Black arrowheads in A and B show boundaries of nuptial pads. (C and D) Representative largest breeding gland (selected from the midpoint of the nuptial pad) from control (C) and atrazine-exposed (D) males. The area of the largest section of the largest gland was determined for each sample. Control males had significantly larger glands (E). (F-H) Transverse cross-sections through the dissected larynges of a representative sexually mature control male (F), atrazine-exposed male (G), and control female (H) X. laevis. Atrazine-exposed males had a laryngeal morphology intermediate between unexposed males and females. The dilater larynges (DL) extended well beyond the thiohyral (TH) in control males, but very little (or not at all, as in the example shown) in atrazine-exposed males. This measure was quantifiable and significantly different between controls and atrazine-exposed animals, regardless of whether the absolute length of the muscle was measured (I) or the straight-line distance (J). Black arrowhead in F indicates the slip of the dilator larynges. Horizontal dashed lines in F and G indicate the midpoint of the thiohyral. ATR, atrazine-exposed; BG, breeding gland; CC, cricoid cartilage; CON, control; E, epidermis; EC, epithelial cells. *P < 0.05; n = 14 for breeding glands, n = 11 for larynges. (Scale bar in B applies to A and B; in D applies to C and D; in H applies to F-H.)
Atrazine-demasculinized male morphology as shown in the nuptial glands and the larynx. (A and B) Forearms, showing nuptial pads from control (A) and atrazine-exposed males (B). Note the reduced nuptial pads in the atrazine-exposed male (B). Black arrowheads in A and B show boundaries of nuptial pads. (C and D) Representative largest breeding gland (selected from the midpoint of the nuptial pad) from control (C) and atrazine-exposed (D) males. The area of the largest section of the largest gland was determined for each sample. Control males had significantly larger glands (E). (F-H) Transverse cross-sections through the dissected larynges of a representative sexually mature control male (F), atrazine-exposed male (G), and control female (H) X. laevis. Atrazine-exposed males had a laryngeal morphology intermediate between unexposed males and females. The dilater larynges (DL) extended well beyond the thiohyral (TH) in control males, but very little (or not at all, as in the example shown) in atrazine-exposed males. This measure was quantifiable and significantly different between controls and atrazine-exposed animals, regardless of whether the absolute length of the muscle was measured (I) or the straight-line distance (J). Black arrowhead in F indicates the slip of the dilator larynges. Horizontal dashed lines in F and G indicate the midpoint of the thiohyral. ATR, atrazine-exposed; BG, breeding gland; CC, cricoid cartilage; CON, control; E, epidermis; EC, epithelial cells. *P < 0.05; n = 14 for breeding glands, n = 11 for larynges. (Scale bar in B applies to A and B; in D applies to C and D; in H applies to F-H.)
… 
Control males out-competed atrazine-exposed males to copulate with females. Amplexus data from four mate choice trials for control (Con) and atrazine-treated (Atr) males (A). Eleven of 16 control males out-competed atrazine-exposed males for amplexus with females. Only two atrazine-exposed males in a single trial achieved amplexus. Male size did not affect breeding success (B). In all four trials, there was no difference (P > 0.05) in size between control (black symbols and bars) and atrazineexposed males (red symbols and bars). Furthermore, in all trials smaller individuals from controls out-competed larger atrazine-exposed individuals. Filled circles show successful males, open circles show unsuccessful males, and horizontal bars show group means. (C ) Testosterone levels for control and atrazine-treated males for all four trials. Filled symbols show successful (amplectant) males, and open symbols show unsuccessful males. Solid horizontal bars show mean testosterone levels for successful males, and open bars show the mean for unsuccessful males.
Control males out-competed atrazine-exposed males to copulate with females. Amplexus data from four mate choice trials for control (Con) and atrazine-treated (Atr) males (A). Eleven of 16 control males out-competed atrazine-exposed males for amplexus with females. Only two atrazine-exposed males in a single trial achieved amplexus. Male size did not affect breeding success (B). In all four trials, there was no difference (P > 0.05) in size between control (black symbols and bars) and atrazineexposed males (red symbols and bars). Furthermore, in all trials smaller individuals from controls out-competed larger atrazine-exposed individuals. Filled circles show successful males, open circles show unsuccessful males, and horizontal bars show group means. (C ) Testosterone levels for control and atrazine-treated males for all four trials. Filled symbols show successful (amplectant) males, and open symbols show unsuccessful males. Solid horizontal bars show mean testosterone levels for successful males, and open bars show the mean for unsuccessful males.
… 
Other studies have shown that atrazine alters sex ratios. Data from Oka et al. (39) (A) and Suzawa and Ingraham (5) (B) showing a concentrationdependent decline in males due to atrazine exposure in African clawed frogs (A) and zebrafish (B). The dashed line shows the 50% mark in both cases. Fig. 5. Atrazine decreased androgen-dependent sperm production, mating behavior, and fertility. (A and C) Largest testicular cross-sections for representative control (A) and atrazine-exposed males (C) from 2007. (B and D) Magnification of individual tubules for control (B) and atrazine-exposed (D) males. Arrowheads in B and D show outline of tubules. Control tubules are typically filled with mature spermatozoa bundles, whereas the majority of tubules in atrazine-exposed males lack mature sperm bundles and are nearly empty, with only secondary spermatocytes (SS) along the periphery of the tubule. (E) Fertility for control (Con) and atrazine-exposed (Atr) males. Pooled data from both 2007 and 2008 study are shown. *P < 0.005 (ANOVA). (F) Fertility plotted against sperm content (percentage of tubules with mature sperm bundles) for control males (black symbols) and atrazine-exposed males (red symbols) for the 2007 (circles) and the 2008 (squares) studies. Dashed lines indicate the lower limit for controls for fertility and sperm content. Sample size differs from the number of trials because no data are available from females that did not lay eggs. (Bar in A applies to A and C; in B applies to B and D.)
Other studies have shown that atrazine alters sex ratios. Data from Oka et al. (39) (A) and Suzawa and Ingraham (5) (B) showing a concentrationdependent decline in males due to atrazine exposure in African clawed frogs (A) and zebrafish (B). The dashed line shows the 50% mark in both cases. Fig. 5. Atrazine decreased androgen-dependent sperm production, mating behavior, and fertility. (A and C) Largest testicular cross-sections for representative control (A) and atrazine-exposed males (C) from 2007. (B and D) Magnification of individual tubules for control (B) and atrazine-exposed (D) males. Arrowheads in B and D show outline of tubules. Control tubules are typically filled with mature spermatozoa bundles, whereas the majority of tubules in atrazine-exposed males lack mature sperm bundles and are nearly empty, with only secondary spermatocytes (SS) along the periphery of the tubule. (E) Fertility for control (Con) and atrazine-exposed (Atr) males. Pooled data from both 2007 and 2008 study are shown. *P < 0.005 (ANOVA). (F) Fertility plotted against sperm content (percentage of tubules with mature sperm bundles) for control males (black symbols) and atrazine-exposed males (red symbols) for the 2007 (circles) and the 2008 (squares) studies. Dashed lines indicate the lower limit for controls for fertility and sperm content. Sample size differs from the number of trials because no data are available from females that did not lay eggs. (Bar in A applies to A and C; in B applies to B and D.)
… 
Content may be subject to copyright.
Atrazine induces complete feminization and chemical
castration in male African clawed frogs
(Xenopus laevis)
Tyrone B. Hayes
a,1
, Vicky Khoury
a,2
, Anne Narayan
a,2
, Mariam Nazir
a,2
, Andrew Park
a,2
, Travis Brown
a
, Lillian Adame
a
,
Elton Chan
a
, Daniel Buchholz
b
, Theresa Stueve
a
, and Sherrie Gallipeau
a
a
Laboratory for Integrative Studies in Amphibian Biology, Department of Integrative Biology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Energy and Resources Group,
Group in Endocrinology, and Molecular Toxicology Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3140; and
b
Department of Biological Sciences,
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221
Edited* by David B. Wake, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved January 15, 2010 (received for review August 20, 2009)
The herbicide atrazine is one of the most commonly applied
pesticides in the world. As a result, atrazine is the most commonly
detected pesticide contaminant of ground, surface, and drinking
water. Atrazine is also a potent endocrine disruptor that is active
at low, ecologically relevant concentrations. Previous studies
showed that atrazine adversely affects amphibian larval develop-
ment. The present study demonstrates the reproductive conse-
quences of atrazine exposure in adult amphibians. Atrazine-
exposed males were both demasculinized (chemically castrated)
and completely feminized as adults. Ten percent of the exposed
genetic males developed into functional females that copulated
with unexposed males and produced viable eggs. Atrazine-
exposed males suffered from depressed testosterone, decreased
breeding gland size, demasculinized/feminized laryngeal develop-
ment, suppressed mating behavior, reduced spermatogenesis, and
decreased fertility. These data are consistent with effects of atra-
zine observed in other vertebrate classes. The present ndings
exemplify the role that atrazine and other endocrine-disrupting
pesticides likely play in global amphibian declines.
amphibian decline
|
endocrine disruption
|
pesticide
|
sex reversal
Atrazine is one of the most widely used pesticides in the
world. Approximately 80 million pounds are applied annu-
ally in the United States alone, and atrazine is the most common
pesticide contaminant of ground and surface water (1). Atrazine
can be transported more than 1,000 km from the point of
application via rainfall and, as a result, contaminates otherwise
pristine habitats, even in remote areas where it is not used (2, 3).
In fact, more than a half million pounds of atrazine are pre-
cipitated in rainfall each year in the United States (2).
In addition to its persistence, mobility, and widespread con-
tamination of water, atrazine is also a concern because several
studies have shown that atrazine is a potent endocrine disruptor
active in the ppb (parts per billion) range in sh (4, 5),
amphibians (612), reptiles, and human cell lines (5, 1315), and
at higher doses (ppm) in reptiles (1618), birds (19), and labo-
ratory rodents (2028). Atrazine seems to be most potent in
amphibians, where it is active at levels as low as 0.1 ppb (610).
Although a few studies suggest that atrazine has no effect on
amphibians under certain laboratory conditions (29, 30), in other
studies, atrazine reduces testicular volume; reduces germ cell
and Sertoli cell numbers (11); induces hermaphroditism (6, 8,
10); reduces testosterone (10); and induces testicular oogenesis
(79, 31). Furthermore, atrazine contamination is associated
with demasculinization and feminization of amphibians in agri-
cultural areas where atrazine is used (32) and directly correlated
with atrazine contamination in the wild (7, 9, 33, 34).
Despite the wealth of data from larvae and newly meta-
morphosed amphibians, the ultimate impacts of atrazines
developmental effects on reproductive function and tness at
sexual maturity, which relate more closely to population level
effects and amphibian declines, have been unexplored. In the
present study, we examined the long-term effects of atrazine
exposure on reproductive development and function in an all-
male population of African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis), gen-
erated by crossing ZZ females (sex-reversed genetic males) to
ZZ males (SI Materials and Methods). The advantage of using
this population is that 100% of the animals tested were genetic
males. As a result, all hermaphrodites and females observed are
ensured to be genetic males that have been altered by endocrine
disruption. We examined sex ratios, testosterone levels, sexual
dimorphism, reproductive behaviors, and fertility in males
exposed to 2.5 ppb atrazine throughout the larval period and for
up to 3 years after metamorphosis.
Results
Feminization. All of the control animals reared to sexual maturity
(n= 40) were males, on the basis of external morphology, whereas
only 90% of the atrazine-treated animals (36 of 40) appeared male
at sexual maturity (on the basis of the presence of keratinized
nuptial pads on the forearms and the absence of cloacal labia). The
other 10% of atrazine-exposed animals (n= 4) lacked visible
nuptial pads on the forearms and had protruding cloacal labia,
typical of females (Fig. 1). Upon dissection of two of the apparent
females and laparotomy in another two, we conrmed that animals
with cloacal labia were indeed females from the present study, on
the basis of the presence of ovaries (Fig. 1F). To date, two atrazine-
induced females have been maintained, mated with control males
(Fig. 1G), and produced viable eggs (Fig. 1H). The resulting larvae
were all male when raised to metamorphosis and sampled (n=
100), conrming that atrazine-induced females were, in fact,
chromosomal males. Furthermore, atrazine-induced females
lacked the DM-W further conrming that these atrazine-induced
females were indeed chromosomal males (Fig. 2). These ZZ
females expressed gonadal aromatase, as did true ZW females
(n= 4, from our stock colony), but ZZ males (n= 8, control or
treated) did not (Fig. 2).
Demasculinization. Morphologic evidence. Atrazine-exposed males
had reduced plasma testosterone levels, relative to control males
(ANOVA: F= 6.647, df = 1, P<0.025) when examined 2 years
after metamorphosis. Consistent with diminished testosterone
Author contributions: T.B.H. designed research; T.B.H., V.K., A.N., M.N., A.P., T.B., L.A.,
E.C., D.B., T.S., and S.G. performed research; T.B.H. contributed new reagents/analytic
tools; T.B.H., V.K., A.N., M.N., A.P., and T.B. analyzed data; and T.B.H. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conict of interest.
*This Direct Submission article had a prearranged editor.
1
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tyrone@berkeley.edu.
2
V.K., A.N., M.N., and A.P. contributed equally to this work.
This article conta ins supporting info rmation online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/
0909519107/DCSupplemental.
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levels, atrazine-exposed males had a decrease in testosterone-
dependent morphologies, as described below.
Nuptial pads and breeding glands. The nuptial pads of control males
were noticeably darker than in atrazine-exposed males (Fig. 3 A
and B). Although color was not quantied, histologic analysis
revealed that the size of the dermal breeding glands (determined
by the cross-sectional area of the largest breeding gland) was
reduced in atrazine-treated males (ANOVA: F= 11.589, df = 1,
P<0.005; Fig. 3 CE). This effect was specic to the testos-
terone-dependent breeding glands (35), because the size of
mucous glands and serous (poison) glands from the same his-
tologic sections were not affected by atrazine (P>0.05). Other
features of the breeding gland that were examined were not
signicantly different between treatments (P>0.05).
Laryngeal morphology. Atrazine exposure altered the structure
but not the size (P>0.05) of the larynx (Fig. 3 FH). The portion of
the dilator laryngis that extended ventral to the thiohyrals was
greater in control males than in atrazine-treated males, regardless
of whether distances were determined by straight-line measure-
ments (ANOVA: F= 11.974, df = 1, P<0.01; Fig. 3I) or by the
actual length of the muscle tracing the division between the slip
and the dilator laryngis proper (ANOVA: F= 11.217, df = 1, P<
0.01; Fig. 3J). In fact, the shape of the larynx in atrazine-exposed
males resembled the morphology typical of normal (ZW) females
maintained in our stock colony (Fig. 3H).
Testes. Atrazine exposure resulted in a signicant reduction in the
relative number of testicular tubules with mature sperm bundles in
2007 (n= 18; ANOVA: F= 8.65, df = 1, P<0.01); that is, atrazine
decreased the frequency of tubules with mature spermatozoa (G
test: G
H
= 13545.2, df = 15, P<0.001). Similar effects were not
Fig. 1. Atrazine feminized exposed males. Cloaca (AC) and gonads (DF)
for control male (Aand D), atrazine-exposed male (Band E), and atrazine-
exposed female (Cand F) ZZ animals (genetic males). (G) Atrazine-induced
female (genetic male, ZZ) copulating with an unexposed male sibling. (H)
Same pair as in G, producing eggs. Eggs (H) were viable and produced larvae
that survived to metamorphosis and adulthood. Yellow coloration (F)isthe
result of xation in Bouins solution. Brackets (Band C) indicate protruding
cloacal labia. (Scale bar in Aapplies to AC;inDapplies to Dand E.)
Fig. 2. Atrazine-induced females expressed aromatase in their gonads.
(Top)DMRT-1 and DM-W genes from a representative control and an atra-
zine-exposed adult male (M) and female (F). Morphologic sex was assigned
on the basis of the presence of testes (males) or ovaries (females). (Middle
and Bottom) Cyp-19 aromatase expression from gonads of the same animals
genotyped at Top, along with the control gene, rpL8.
Fig. 3. Atrazine-demasculinized male morphology as shown in the nuptial
glands and the larynx. (Aand B) Forearms, showing nuptial pads from control
(A) and atrazine-exposed males (B). Note the reduced nuptial pads in the
atrazine-exposed male (B). Black arrowheads in Aand Bshow boundaries of
nuptial pads. (Cand D) Representative largest breeding gland (selected from
the midpoint of the nuptial pad) from control (C) and atrazine-exposed (D)
males. The area of the largest section of the largest gland was determined for
each sample. Control males had signicantly larger glands (E). (FH) Trans-
verse cross-sections through the dissected larynges of a representative sexually
mature control male (F), atrazine-exposed male (G), and control female (H)X.
laevis. Atrazine-exposed males had a laryngeal morphology intermediate
between unexposed males and females. The dilater larynges (DL) extended
well beyond the thiohyral (TH) in control males, but very little (or not at all, as
in the example shown) in atrazine-exposed males. This measure was quanti-
able and signicantly different between controls and atrazine-exposed
animals, regardless of whether the absolute length of the muscle was meas-
ured (I) or the straight-line distance (J). Black arrowhead in Findicates the slip
of the dilator larynges. Horizontal dashed lines in Fand Gindicate the mid-
point of the thiohyral. ATR, atrazine-exposed; BG, breeding gland; CC, cricoid
cartilage; CON, control; E, epidermis; EC, epithelial cells. *P<0.05; n=14for
breeding glands, n= 11 for larynges. (Scale bar in B applies to Aand B;inD
applies to Cand D;inHapplies to FH.)
Hayes et al. PNAS
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observed (P>0.05) in animals (n= 10) 1 year later at 3 years after
metamorphosis, in 2008. Other features of the gonads that were
examined were not signicantly different (P>0.05).
Behavioral evidence. Mating choice studies. In experiments in which
control males and atrazine-treated males competed for females,
control males out-competed atrazine males (achieved amplexus)
in three out of four trials examined, and only two atrazine-
treated males (in a single trial) obtained amplexus (Gtest: G
T
=
61.82, df = 4, P<0.001; Fig. 4A). Male size was not different
between treatments and had no effect on the ability of males to
achieve amlpexus (P>0.05; Fig. 4B). Control males had sig-
nicantly higher testosterone levels in the presence of females,
when compared with atrazine-treated males when analyzed by
ANOVA (F= 14.65, df = 1, P<0.001; Fig. 4C) or by Kruskal-
Wallis test (χ
2
= 9.304, df = 1, P<0.002).
Fertility. Representative testis for control and atrazine-treated
males from 2007 are shown in Figs. 5 AD. Atrazine-treated males
had signicantly lower fertility rates (proportion of eggs fertilized)
when examined by ANOVA (F= 8.026, df = 1, P<0.01; Fig. 5E)
or when examined using a Gtest with the mean fertility for controls
used as the expected frequency (G
P
= 10,434, df = 1, P<0.001).
Even atrazine-treated males with relatively high sperm content
(e.g., animals from the 2008 study) had low fertility (Fig. 5F).
Discussion
Previous studies showed that atrazine demasculinizes (chemically
castrates) and feminizes exposed amphibian larvae, resulting in
hermaphrodites (8, 10) or males with testicular oocytes (7, 9) at
metamorphosis. Since our initial publications (7, 9, 10), the effects
of atrazine on amphibian development and the signicance of
these effects to amphibian declines have been a subject of debate
(30, 35, 36). Although some investigators, including Carr et al. (6),
reported statistically signicant effects of atrazine on gonadal
morphology in X. laevis (P<0.0003 for multiple testes and P=
0.0042 for hermaphrodites), others, using different experimental
conditions and different populations of the same species, sug-
gested that atrazine had no effect (29). Essential to this debate,
however, is (i) the terminology used to describe gonadal abnor-
malities; (ii) the expertise and ability of other researchers to rec-
ognize abnormalities; (iii) the possibility of natural variation in sex
differentiation processes between species and even between
populations (or strains) within a species (37); and (iv) the long-
term consequences and signicance of the observed abnormalities
to amphibian reproductive tness. Here we describe complete and
functional female development in genetic (ZZ) males exposed to
atrazine, not the production of hermaphrodites or males with
testicular oocytes. Thus, there is no confusion in the present study
regarding proper terminology or proper identication. Fur-
thermore, because we used an all genetic (ZZ) male colony and
genotyped the atrazine-induced ZZ females, there is no question
that atrazine completely sex-reversed genetic (ZZ) males, result-
ing in reproductively functional females.
The present study thoroughly examines the long-term effects
of atrazine on reproductive function in amphibians. Although a
single published study attempted to examine long-term repro-
ductive effects of atrazine in amphibians (38), the authors did
not report examinations of morphology. Furthermore, their
examination of fertility and breeding of atrazine-exposed males
was conducted after animals were injected with reproductive
hormones (human chorionic gonadotropin, hCG), effectively
providing hormone replacement therapyand reversing the
effects of atrazine. The present study represents a more thor-
ough examination of the effects of atrazine on sex hormone
production, testosterone-dependent development and morphol-
ogy, male reproductive behavior, and fertility.
Perhaps the most dramatic nding here is that hermaphroditism
observed at metamorphosis in animals exposed to atrazine (6, 10)
can ultimately result in complete feminization. The complete
feminization of males exposed to atrazine is consistent with two
previous studies that showed that atrazine feminizes zebra sh
(Danio rerio) (5) and Xenopus laevis (39) (Fig. 6) and a more recent
study that showed that atrazine exposure feminizes leopard frogs,
Rana pipiens (40). These previous reports based their ndings on
shifts in the sex ratio, however; our study showed that atrazine-
induced females are indeed genetic males. Furthermore, we
showed that feminization is persistent and complete, resulting in
reproductively functional females capable of producing viable
eggs. Together, the present data and these three similar reports (5,
39, 40) suggest that sex-reversal by atrazine (complete feminiza-
tion of genetic males) is not a species-specic effect but rather one
that occurs across nonamniote vertebrate classes.
In addition to feminization, individuals exposed to atrazine that
appeared male were demasculinized in the present study. The decline
in testosterone in atrazine-exposed males, also shown in previous
studies (10), is consistent with the decline in all testosterone-
dependent morphologies examined here, including demasculinized/
feminized laryngeal morphology and decreased breeding gland size.
The decreased testosterone and absence of increased testosterone in
atrazine-exposed males in the presence of females is further con-
sistent with the inability of atrazine-exposed males to compete with
unexposed males for access to females and consistent with the decline
in sperm production and severely impaired fertility observed in
atrazine-exposed males. The decreased frequency of tubules con-
taining mature sperm suggests that the previously reported decline in
germ cells and nursing cells after only 48 h exposure to atrazine in X.
laevis (11) persists through adulthood. Likewise, the demasculinized
larynges suggest that the smaller laryngeal size observed at meta-
morphosis in previous studies (10, 41) results in persistent effects
through sexual maturity. The low fertility rate of atrazine-treated
males (regardless of sperm content) suggests that even atrazine-
Fig. 4. Control males out-competed atrazine-exposed
males to copulate with females. Amplexus data from four
mate choice trials for control (Con) and atrazine-treated
(Atr) males (A). Eleven of 16 control males out-competed
atrazine-exposed males for amplexus with females. Only
two atrazine-exposed males in a single trial achieved
amplexus. Male size did not affect breeding success (B). In
all four trials, there was no difference (P>0.05) in size
between control (black symbols and bars) and atrazine-
exposed males (red symbols and bars). Furthermore, in all
trials smaller individuals from controls out-competed larger
atrazine-exposed individuals. Filled circles show successful
males, open circles show unsuccessful males, and horizon-
tal bars show group means. (C) Testosterone levels for
control and atrazine-treated males for all four trials. Filled
symbols show successful (amplectant) males, and open
symbols show unsuccessful males. Solid horizontal bars show mean testosterone levels for successful males, and open bars show the mean for
unsuccessful males.
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exposed males with adequate sperm do not show the copulatory
behavior necessary for successful reproduction.
The present results are also consistent with other studies that
examined long-term behavioral effects of atrazine in sh (salmon,
Salmo salar) (4). Salmon exposed to atrazine (6 ppb) showed a
dose-dependent decrease in androgens. Atrazine-exposure (6
ppb) resulted in a signicant decline in sperm production (milt),
and exposed males lost the ability to respond to the attractant
female pheromone. Furthermore, atrazine reduced sperm content
in a reptile (caiman, Caiman latirostris), producing a morphology
nearly identical to what we report here (18). The similarities
between these previous ndings in sh (4) and in reptiles (18) and
the present ndings in an amphibian suggest that the demasculi-
nizing effects of atrazine are also not species, genera, family, or
even order specic but occur across vertebrate classes. Indeed,
declining androgens (22, 26) and decreased sperm production
have been shown in laboratory rodents exposed to atrazine as well
(22, 26, 42), albeit at higher doses. Furthermore, atrazine exposure
is highly correlated (P<0.009) with low sperm count, poor semen
quality, and impaired fertility in humans (43).
Although atrazine reportedly affects vertebrates through a
number of mechanisms, the reported mechanism most consistent
with the effects observed on amphibian reproduction here is the
induction of aromatase, which has been shown in several verte-
brate classes (5, 15, 16). The induction of aromatase is consistent
with the natural sex differentiation process in X. laevis, in which
the sex-determining gene, DM-W, is a transcription factor (44)
that induces aromatase expression in the developing undiffer-
entiated gonad of genetic (ZW) females (44). Transcription and
subsequent translation of aromatase leads to estrogen pro-
duction, which in turn directs differentiation of the ovary from
the undifferentiated gonad. Just as exogenous estrogen results in
the differentiation of ovaries in exposed genetic (ZZ) male X.
laevis (45), induction of aromatase and subsequent estrogen
production likely explain the complete feminization of genetic
male X. laevis by atrazine. Although ideally one needs to show
that atrazine induces aromatase in genetic males before the
transformation into females to support this hypothesis, it is not
clear how such a study can be conducted here. Animals eutha-
nized to measure aromatase expression do not have the oppor-
tunity to develop further, and thus it cannot be shown that the
individuals that expressed aromatase were destined to become
females. Furthermore, why only some males (10% in the present
population) are completely feminized, whereas their siblings are
merely demasculinized, remains to be explored.
Regardless of the mechanism, the impacts of atrazine on
amphibians and on wildlife in general are potentially devastating.
The negative impacts on wild amphibians is especially concern-
ing given that the dose examined here (2.5 ppb) is in the range
that animals experience year-round in areas where atrazine is
used (1, 32, 46), well within levels found in rainfall (47), in which
levels can exceed 100 ppb in the midwestern United States (48),
and below the current US Environmental Protection Agency
drinking water standard of 3 ppb (49). Furthermore, recent
studies have shown that frog skin absorbs atrazine at much
higher rates than the skin of mammals (50), and even semite-
rrestrial frog species take up signicant amounts of atrazine (51).
Thus, the exposure level examined in the present study is rele-
vant even to semiterrestrial amphibians.
Although many studies have focused on death from disease and
its role in global amphibian declines and sudden enigmatic dis-
appearances of populations, virtually no attention has been paid to
the slow gradual loss of amphibian populations due to failed
Fig. 6. Other studies have shown that atrazine alters sex ratios. Data from
Oka et al. (39) (A) and Suzawa and Ingraham (5) (B) showing a concentration-
dependent decline in males due to atrazine exposure in African clawed frogs
(A) and zebrash (B). The dashed line shows the 50% mark in both cases.
Fig. 5. Atrazine decreased androgen-dependent sperm production, mating
behavior, and fertility. (Aand C) Largest testicular cross-sections for repre-
sentative control (A) and atrazine-exposed males (C) from 2007. (Band D)
Magnication of individual tubules for control (B) and atrazine-exposed (D)
males. Arrowheads in Band Dshow outline of tubules. Control tubules are
typically lled with mature spermatozoa bundles, whereas the majority of
tubules in atrazine-exposed males lack mature sperm bundles and are nearly
empty, with only secondary spermatocytes (SS) along the periphery of the
tubule. (E) Fertility for control (Con) and atrazine-exposed (Atr) males. Pooled
data from both 2007 and 2008 study are shown. *P<0.005 (ANOVA). (F)
Fertility plotted against sperm content (percentage of tubules with mature
sperm bundles) for control males (black symbols) and atrazine-exposed males
(red symbols) for the 2007 (circles) and the 2008 (squares) studies. Dashed lines
indicate the lower limit for controls for fertility and sperm content. Sample size
differs from the number of trials because no data are available from females
that did not lay eggs. (Bar in Aapplies to Aand C;inBapplies to Band D.)
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