Abstract: The sex determination mechanisms (SDMs) of vertebrate is one of the hotspots in the studies of evolutionary biology, being of significance in both ontogeny and sex ratio of natural population. According to the main causal agents of sex determination, the SDMs can be categorized into genotypic sex determination (GSD) and environmental sex determination (ESD), and the temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) is the primary SDM in ESD. Most amniote vertebrates have a stable GSD mechanism, while reptiles have various kinds of SDMs, and even, the closely related species might have different mechanisms of SDMs. With reptiles as model systems, the researchers have made many studies on the SDMs of vertebrate. Here, we summarized the latest research on the TSD of reptiles, with the focus on the combined effects of temperature and hormone, the adaptive significance of TSD evolution, and the potential impacts of climate change on the TSD reptiles. Efforts were made to point out the priority in further TSD studies in reptiles.

Key words: Pine wilt disease, Pinewood nematode, Ecology, Pathogenic mechanism, Pest management