Disorders of sexual development and abnormal early development in domestic food-producing mammals: the role of chromosome abnormalities, environment and stress factors

The management of disorders of sexual development (DSD) in humans and domestic animals has been the subject of intense interest for decades. The association between abnormal chromosome constitutions and DSDs in domestic animals has been recorded since the beginnings of conventional cytogenetic analysis. Deviated karyotypes consisting of abnormal sex chromosome sets and/or the coexistence of cells with different sex chromosome constitutions in an individual seem to be the main causes of anomalies of sex determination and sex differentiation. In recent years, a growing interest has developed around the environmental insults, such as endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDC) and heat stressors, which affect fertility, early embryonic development and, in some instances, directly the sex ratio and/or the development of 1 specific sex versus the other. A variety of chemical compounds present in the environment at low doses has been shown to have major effects on the reproductive functions in human and domestic animals following prolonged exposure. In this review, we present an overview of congenital/chromosomal factors that are responsible for the DSDs and link them and the lack of proper embryonic development to environmental factors that are becoming a major global concern.