Estradiol and incubation temperature modulate regulation of steroidogenic factor 1 in the developing gonad of the red-eared slider turtle

Red-eared slider turtles are genetically bipotential for sex determination, with incubation temperature of the egg determining gonadal sex. At higher incubation temperatures, females are produced, possibly due to increased biosynthesis of estrogen. Exogenous estrogen causes the formation of ovaries, and prevention of estrogen biosynthesis results in the development of testes. In mammals, steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-l) regulates most genes required for estrogen biosynthesis from cholesterol. In mammals as well as red-eared slider turtles, SF-l is differentially expressed in males and females during gonadogenesis. To examine a possible role for SF-l in temperature- dependent sex determination, we assayed its expression in red-eared slider turtles after treatments that alter sex development during gonadogenesis of the wild-type organism. We examined gonadal SF-1 expression in embryos 1) incubating at three different temperatures, 2) after treating eggs with estrogen at a male-producing temperature, and 3) after inhibition of estrogen biosynthesis at a female-producing temperature. Our findings suggest that both temperature and estrogen lie upstream of SF-1 in a sex-determining regulatory hierarchy in red-eared slider turtles and that estrogen directly or indirectly modulates the regulation of SF-1 expression.