Integrated Bioscience Section, Graduate School of Science and Technology, National University Corporation Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan.
Biological Science Course, Graduate School of Integrated Science and Technology, National University Corporation Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan.
Zebrafish. 2020 Aug;17(4):261-267. doi: 10.1089/zeb.2020.1864. Epub 2020 Jun 22.
Previously, we examined whether aromatase inhibitor (AI) treatment induces a sex change in adult female zebrafish. A 5-month AI treatment regime resulted in the retraction of the ovaries and testis formation. Eight weeks after changing the diet to AI-free food, a large number of normal sperm were obtained. Artificial fertilization using sperm from the sex-changed females was successful. These results demonstrated that sex plasticity remains in the mature ovaries of zebrafish. However, >7 months of treatment was necessary; thus, pairing was unsuccessful. In this study, we tried to induce sex change through the injection of an AI to shorten the time course of sex change. When the AI solution was directly injected into the abdomen of zebrafish, retraction of the ovary was induced within 2 months. The natural mating of sex-changed females with normal females was successful at 3 months. Although the fertilization rate was low, juveniles resulting from these matings developed normally. We succeeded in establishing a method for inducing sex changes in adult zebrafish within 3 months. The procedure will support the study of how sexual plasticity persists in adult zebrafish following sex differentiation and the identification of undifferentiated stem cells.
先前，我们研究了芳香化酶抑制剂（AI）治疗是否会引起成年雌性斑马鱼的性别转变。5 个月的 AI 治疗方案导致卵巢收缩和睾丸形成。改变饮食为不含 AI 的食物 8 周后，获得了大量正常精子。使用来自性转变雌性的精子进行人工授精是成功的。这些结果表明，性可塑性在成熟的斑马鱼卵巢中仍然存在。然而，需要超过 7 个月的治疗；因此，配对不成功。在这项研究中，我们试图通过注射 AI 来诱导性别转变，从而缩短性别转变的时间过程。当 AI 溶液直接注射到斑马鱼的腹部时，卵巢在 2 个月内收缩。性转变雌性与正常雌性的自然交配在 3 个月时成功。尽管受精率较低，但这些交配产生的幼鱼正常发育。我们成功地建立了一种在 3 个月内诱导成年斑马鱼性别转变的方法。该程序将支持研究性分化后成年斑马鱼中性可塑性是如何持续存在的，并确定未分化的干细胞。
