Sex in Dragons: Evolution of sex determination in reptiles

How animals determine sex has been debated over decades. Particularly curious is that sex is determined by genes in some animals and temperature in others. We will use novel genetic, molecular and cytological approaches to discover the genes and chromosomes that control sex determination in species with genotypic sex determination, and explore their homologues in species with temperature-dependent sex determination, to determine the evolutionary basis for these systems. We expect this study will provide new insights on mechanisms of sex determination in all vertebrates and will demonstrate how genes and the environment interact to control the process.