Role of pineal and eyes in the regulation of ovarian activity and vitellogenin levels in the catfish exposed to continuous light or continuous darkness.

To investigate the relative importance of pineal and eyes in ovarian activity, catfish subjected to pinealectomy, binding, or both were exposed to continuous light (LL) or continuous darkness (DD) during the different phases of the annual reproductive cycle. Pineal or eyes have no influence on ovarian activity during the preparatory, prespawning, and spawning periods of the annual reproductive cycle under these photoregimes. However, the pineal accelerated ovarian activity under LL and DD during the postspawning period. Blinding alone has no effect on ovarian recrudescence under these regimes. However, combined surgery (blinded-pinealectomy) inhibited ovarian development under both these conditions, indicating that the pineal organ is more important than the eyes. Ovarian recrudescence occurred even in the absence of both pineal and eyes, indicating the involvement of extrapineal and extraocular photoreception in the regulation of reproductive activity in the catfish.