Burger Joanna
Division of Life Sciences, Rutgers University, Nelson Biological Laboratory, 604 Allison Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8082, USA.
Environ Res. 2007 May;104(1):153-62. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2006.08.001. Epub 2006 Oct 12.
Gender plays a role in the genetics, physiology, morphology, and behavior of organisms, and thus influences the uptake, fate, and effects of contaminants in organisms. There are a number of chemical analysis tools, as well as biological approaches to understanding the influence of gender on contaminant levels and effects in wildlife. Biological approaches occur at all levels, from mutagenesis, gene expression and biochemistry, to physiology, morphology and development, to pathology and behavior. Information on the effects of gender at all these levels is essential for model building, risk assessment, and developing biomonitoring plans. Gender influences both internal and external fate and effects. However, bioaccumulation and effects cannot occur without exposure, which is mediated by behavior, bioavailability, bioaccessibility, and absorption. Gender influences a number of individual features (size, nutrition, genetics, hormones), that in turn affect niche differentiation, leading back to differences in exposure and susceptibility. Both sexes have a variety of methods of ridding the body of contaminants, through the bile, urine, exhaled air, and sloughing of epidermal structures (skin, hair, feathers). Females can also rid their body of contaminants through egg contents and egg shells, or mammals by transfer to the developing fetus and through breast milk. The availability of contaminant data in wildlife depends partly on the ease of identification of the sexes by either external or internal examination. Thus, there are more data on contaminant levels in birds and mammals than in fish. Surprisingly, metal levels are not uniformly low in females, even when they are morphologically smaller than males. For 43 studies of metals in vertebrates, females had higher levels in 30 cases where there were significant differences (and males were higher in only 14 cases). Females usually had higher levels of mercury than males. Review of the literature suggests that authors should clearly describe the gender differences in their abstracts (not just say they exist), and if they found no differences, state whether they had sufficient power to identify such differences.
性别在生物体的遗传学、生理学、形态学和行为中发挥作用，从而影响生物体对污染物的摄取、归宿和影响。有许多化学分析工具以及生物学方法来理解性别对野生动物体内污染物水平和影响的作用。生物学方法涵盖各个层面，从诱变、基因表达和生物化学，到生理学、形态学和发育，再到病理学和行为学。关于性别在所有这些层面影响的信息对于模型构建、风险评估以及制定生物监测计划至关重要。性别影响内部和外部的归宿及影响。然而，没有暴露就不会发生生物累积和影响，而暴露是由行为、生物可利用性、生物可及性和吸收介导的。性别影响许多个体特征（大小、营养、遗传学、激素），这些特征进而影响生态位分化，导致暴露和易感性的差异。两性都有多种通过胆汁、尿液、呼出气体以及表皮结构（皮肤、毛发、羽毛）脱落来清除体内污染物的方式。雌性还可以通过卵内容物和卵壳清除体内污染物，或者对于哺乳动物来说，通过向发育中的胎儿转移以及通过母乳清除污染物。野生动物体内污染物数据的可得性部分取决于通过外部或内部检查识别性别的难易程度。因此，鸟类和哺乳动物的污染物水平数据比鱼类更多。令人惊讶的是，即使雌性在形态上比雄性小，其体内金属水平也并非一律较低。在对脊椎动物金属的43项研究中，在有显著差异的30例中雌性水平较高（只有14例雄性水平较高）。雌性体内汞的含量通常高于雄性。文献综述表明，作者应在摘要中清晰描述性别差异（而不仅仅是说存在差异），如果他们未发现差异，应说明是否有足够的能力识别此类差异。
