Gender defying plants and animals

Multi-Gendered Mushrooms

In the mushroom world, there is a huge number of possible genders for one, up to 23,000 – far more than humans have. Trichaptum mushrooms, for example, have more than 17,000.

The sex of a mushroom is controlled by two genes of two chromosomes, A and B, and alpha and beta, leaving four types of variation, at least: A – alpha, A – beta, B – beta and B – alpha. Each of those four chromosomes can have multiple variants, which are all different versions of the same protein set. A – beta has around 32 variations, and the rest have around nine. So the genetic sequence which decides the sex of a mushroom is incredibly diverse, resulting in many different genders.

The reason there are so many sexes is for reproduction, as it allows the mushroom to reproduce with pretty much any other mushroom, as long as it has at least one different variant in it’s A and B, since that changes the gender, which allows for more reproduction opportunities.

Gynandromorphism

Most butterflies are symmetrical, meaning that their wings are exact mirrors of each other, this can be used to tell the sex of the butterfly. However asymmetrical butterflies, or chimera butterflies, have different wings. This is because they’re both male and female.

This is known as gynandromorphism, when a creature is born with two sexes in one body. This happens in many different creatures including, birds, insects, chelicerates (spiders and mites), crustaceans and more, although mostly amongst the named creatures.

This happens when different tissues inside the animal shows different sex identies, and results from genetic mosaicism (when an organism has two or more genetically different sets of cells in it’s body) at a chromosomal level, which changes the gender of the tissue, therefore giving the organism multiple genders.

Sequential hermaphroditism

Over 500 species of fish in the sea, rivers, and lakes, have the ability to change their sex to compliment their partner’s.

The most typical example of this is the clownfish, which lives in a strict hierarchy, with one female, the dominant, and one male reproducing to produce offspring. However, if the female dies, the male transitions to female, becoming the new dominant, and one of the offspring (which are all born male) becomes the new breeding male.

This is known as Sequential hermaphroditism (when an organism has the ability to change is sex) and is most commonly present in invertebrates, with fish being the only known functional sequential hermaphrodite vertebrates.

The fishes genetics depends partially upon the environment, with warmer temperatures inducing more males (in salt water) and visa versa, whilst, in freshwater fish, more of the chemical 17a-ethynylestradiol in the water will lead to more females.

There are three types of Hermaphroditism, protogynous (female to male), protandrous (male to female) and Bi-directional (can change their sex back and forth, multiple times if necessary)

The change takes place depending on environmental factors (e.g. predators, food supply, territory), and starts in the brain, with the changes then being transmitted to the gonads (sexual organs), most probably the hypothalamus, pituitary and gonadal glands, which are responsible for the oestrogen-androgen balance which decides the sex of the fish.