Pesticide Atrazine Can Turn Male Frogs Into Females
By | Published: March 11, 2010
University of California – Berkeley
Atrazine, one of the world’s most widely used pesticides, emasculates three-quarters of adult male frogs, who then cannot reproduce, and turns one in 10 into females, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, biologists. While the experiments were performed on a common laboratory frog, the African clawed frog, field studies indicate that atrazine, a potent endocrine disruptor, similarly affects frogs in the wild, and could possibly be one of the causes of amphibian declines around the globe.
Pesticide Atrazine Can Turn Male Frogs Into Females
University of California – Berkeley
Atrazine, one of the world’s most widely used pesticides, emasculates three-quarters of adult male frogs, who then cannot reproduce, and turns one in 10 into females, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, biologists. While the experiments were performed on a common laboratory frog, the African clawed frog, field studies indicate that atrazine, a potent endocrine disruptor, similarly affects frogs in the wild, and could possibly be one of the causes of amphibian declines around the globe.