Department of Marine Biotechnology, Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21202, United States.
Gen Comp Endocrinol. 2021 Jan 1;300:113544. doi: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2020.113544. Epub 2020 Jun 30.
Driven by the broad diversity of species and physiologies and by reproduction-related bottlenecks in aquaculture, the field of fish reproductive biology has rapidly grown over the last five decades. This review provides my perspective on the field during this period, integrating fundamental and applied developments and milestones. Our basic understanding of the brain-pituitary-gonadal axis led to overcoming the failure of farmed fish to ovulate and spawn in captivity, allowing us to close the fish life cycle and establish a predictable, year-round production of eggs. Dissecting the molecular and hormonal mechanisms associated with sex determination and differentiation drove technologies for producing better performing mono-sex and reproductively-sterile fish. The growing contingent of passionate fish biologists, together with the availability of innovative platforms such as transgenesis and gene editing, as well as new models such as the zebrafish and medaka, have generated many discoveries, also leading to new insights of reproductive biology in higher vertebrates including humans. Consequently, fish have now been widely accepted as vertebrate reproductive models. Perhaps the best testament of the progress in our discipline is demonstrated at the International Symposia on Reproductive Physiology of Fish (ISRPF), at which our scientific family has convened every four years since the grandfather of the field, the late Ronald Billard, organized the inaugural 1977 meeting in Paimpont, France. As the one person who has been fortunate enough to attend all of these meetings since their inception, I have witnessed first-hand the astounding evolution of our field as we capitalized on the molecular and biotechnological revolutions in the life sciences, which enabled us to provide a higher resolution of fish reproductive and endocrine processes, answer more questions, and dive into deeper comprehension. Undoubtedly, the next (five) decades will be similarly exciting as we continue to integrate physiology with genomics, basic and translational research, and the small fish models with the aquacultured species.
受物种和生理学广泛多样性以及水产养殖中与繁殖相关瓶颈的驱动，鱼类生殖生物学领域在过去五十年中迅速发展。本综述提供了我在此期间对该领域的看法，整合了基础和应用方面的发展和里程碑。我们对脑垂体性腺轴的基本理解导致克服了养殖鱼类在人工养殖中无法排卵和产卵的问题，使我们能够完成鱼类生命周期并建立可预测的、全年生产卵子的方法。解析与性别决定和分化相关的分子和激素机制推动了生产表现更好的单性和生殖不育鱼类的技术发展。越来越多充满激情的鱼类生物学家，加上可创新平台（如转基因和基因编辑）以及新模型（如斑马鱼和青鳉）的可用性，产生了许多发现，也为包括人类在内的高等脊椎动物的生殖生物学提供了新的见解。因此，鱼类现在已被广泛接受为脊椎动物生殖模型。我们学科进展的最好证明或许体现在国际鱼类生殖生理学专题讨论会上（ISRPF），自该领域的先驱罗纳德·巴利（Ronald Billard）于 1977 年在法国帕蓬组织首次会议以来，我们的科学界每四年在该会议上聚会一次。作为自成立以来有幸参加所有这些会议的人之一，我亲眼目睹了我们领域的惊人发展，因为我们利用了生命科学中的分子和生物技术革命，使我们能够更深入地了解鱼类生殖和内分泌过程，回答更多问题，并深入理解。毫无疑问，在我们继续将生理学与基因组学、基础和转化研究以及小鱼模型与养殖物种相结合的过程中，未来（五）十年也将同样令人兴奋。
