Huang Minwei, Chen Jiaxing, Liu Yun, Chen Huimin, Yu Zeshu, Ye Zhifeng, Peng Cheng, Xiao Ling, Zhao Mi, Li Shuisheng, Lin Haoran, Zhang Yong
State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Aquatic Economic Animals and Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Healthy Breeding of Important Economic Fish, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Guangdong South China Sea Key Laboratory of Aquaculture for Aquatic Economic Animals, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, China.
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2019 May 15;10:304. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2019.00304. eCollection 2019.
Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) signaling is considered to be essential for early gametogenesis in teleosts, but its functional roles during sex differentiation are largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of long-term and short-term FSH injection on sex differentiation in the protogynous orange-spotted grouper (). Long-term FSH treatment initially promoted the formation of ovaries but subsequently induced a male fate. The expression of female pathway genes was initially increased but then decreased, whereas the expression of male pathway genes was up-regulated only during long-term FSH treatment. The genes related to the synthesis of sex steroid hormones, as well as serum 11-ketotestosterone and estradiol, were also up-regulated during long-term FSH treatment. Short-term FSH treatment activated genes in the female pathway (especially ) at low doses but caused inhibition at high doses. Genes in the male pathway were up-regulated by high concentrations of FSH over the short term. Finally, we found that low, but not high, concentrations of FSH treatment activated promoter activities in human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells. Overall, our data suggested that FSH may induce ovarian differentiation or a change to a male sex fate in the protogynous orange-spotted grouper, and that these processes occurred in an FSH concentration-dependent manner.
促卵泡激素（FSH）信号传导被认为是硬骨鱼早期配子发生所必需的，但其在性别分化过程中的功能作用在很大程度上尚不清楚。在本研究中，我们调查了长期和短期注射FSH对雌性先熟的点带石斑鱼性别分化的影响。长期FSH处理最初促进了卵巢的形成，但随后诱导了雄性命运。雌性途径基因的表达最初增加，但随后下降，而雄性途径基因的表达仅在长期FSH处理期间上调。与性类固醇激素合成相关的基因以及血清11-酮睾酮和雌二醇在长期FSH处理期间也上调。短期FSH处理在低剂量时激活了雌性途径中的基因（尤其是），但在高剂量时导致抑制。雄性途径中的基因在短期内被高浓度的FSH上调。最后，我们发现低浓度而非高浓度的FSH处理激活了人胚肾（HEK）293细胞中的启动子活性。总体而言，我们的数据表明，FSH可能诱导雌性先熟的点带石斑鱼的卵巢分化或向雄性命运转变，并且这些过程以FSH浓度依赖性方式发生。
