Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) is an African freshwater fish that displays a genetic sex determination system (XX|XY) where high temperatures (above 32°C to 36.5°C) induce masculinization. In Nile tilapia, the thermosensitive period was reported from 10 to 30 days post fertilization. In their natural environment, juveniles may encounter high temperatures that are above the optimal temperature for growth (27–30°C). The relevance of the thermal sex reversal mechanism in a natural context remains unclear. The main objective of our study is to determine whether sexually undifferentiated juveniles spontaneously prefer higher, unfavorable temperatures and whether this choice skews the sex ratio toward males. Five full-sib progenies (from 100% XX crosses) were subjected to (1) a horizontal three-compartment thermal step gradient (thermal continuum 28°C– 32°C– 36.5°C) during the thermosensitive period, (2) a control continuum (28°C– 28°C– 28°C) and (3) a thermal control tank (36.5°C). During the first days of the treatment, up to an average of 20% of the population preferred the masculinizing compartment of the thermal continuum (36.5°C) compared to the control continuum. During the second part of the treatment, juveniles preferred the lower, nonmasculinizing 32°C temperature. This short exposure to higher temperatures was sufficient to significantly skew the sex ratio toward males, compared to congeners raised at 28°C (from 5.0 ± 6.7% to 15.6 ± 16.5% of males). The proportion of males was significantly different in the thermal continuum, thermal control tank and control continuum, and it was positively correlated among populations. Our study shows for the first time that Nile tilapia juveniles can choose a masculinizing temperature during a short period of time. This preference is sufficient to induce sex reversal to males within a population. For the first time, behavior is reported as a potential player in the sex determination mechanism of this species.

The in silico prediction of cis-acting elements in a genome is an efficient way to quickly obtain an overview of the biological processes controlled by a trans-acting factor, and connections between regulatory networks. Several regulon prediction web tools are available, designed to identify DNA motifs predicted to be bound by transcription factors using position weight matrix-based algorithms. In this paper we expose and discuss the conflicting objectives of software creators (bioinformaticians) and software users (biologists), who aim for reliable and exhaustive prediction outputs, respectively. Software makers, concerned with providing tools that minimise the number of false positive hits, often impose a stringent threshold score for a sequence to be included in the list of the putative cis-acting sites. This rigidity eventually results in the identification of strongly reliable but largely straightforward sites, i.e. those associated with genes already anticipated to be targeted by the studied transcription factor. Importantly, this biased identification of strongly bound sequences contrasts with the biological reality where, in many circumstances, a weak DNA-protein interaction is required for the appropriate gene's expression. We show here a series of transcriptionally controlled systems involving weakly bound cis-acting elements that could never have been discovered because of the policy of preventing software users from modifying the screening parameters. Proposing only trustworthy prediction outputs thus prevents biologists from fully utilising their knowledge background and deciding to analyse statistically irrelevant hits that could nonetheless be potentially involved in subtle, unexpected, though essential cis-trans relationships.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are posing major environmental and health threats due to their stability, ubiquity, and bioaccumulation. Most of the numerous studies of these compounds deal with single chemicals, although real exposures always consist of mixtures. Thus, using different tests, we screened the effects on zebrafish larvae caused by exposure to an environmentally relevant POP mixture. Our mixture consisted of 29 chemicals as found in the blood of a Scandinavian human population. Larvae exposed to this POP mix at realistic concentrations, or sub-mixtures thereof, presented growth retardation, edemas, retarded swim bladder inflation, hyperactive swimming behavior, and other striking malformations such as microphthalmia. The most deleterious compounds in the mixture belong to the per- and polyfluorinated acids class, although chlorinated and brominated compounds modulated the effects. Analyzing the changes in transcriptome caused by POP exposure, we observed an increase of insulin signaling and identified genes involved in brain and eye development, leading us to propose that the impaired function of the condensin I complex caused the observed eye defect. Our findings contribute to the understanding of POP mixtures, their consequences, and potential threats to human and animal populations, indicating that more mechanistic, monitoring, and long-term studies are imperative.