Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, Hainan, China.
College of Marine Sciences, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan, China.
Physiol Behav. 2023 May 1;263:114132. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2023.114132. Epub 2023 Feb 17.
The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has historically been a useful model for research in genetics, ecology, biology, toxicology, and neurobehavior. Zebrafish have been demonstrated to have brain sexual dimorphism. However, the sexual dimorphism of zebrafish behavior demands our attention, particularly. To evaluate the behavior and brain sexual dimorphisms in zebrafish, this study assessed sex differences in adult D. rerio in four behavioral domains, including aggression, fear, anxiety, and shoaling, and further compared with metabolites in the brain tissue of females and males. Our findings showed that aggression, fear, anxiety and shoaling behaviors were significantly sexually dimorphic. Interestingly, we also show through a novel data analysis method, that the female zebrafish exhibited significantly increased shoaling behavior when shoaled with male zebrafish groups and, for the first time, we offer evidence that male shoals are beneficial in dramatically alleviating anxiety in zebrafish. In addition, there were significant changes in metabolites in zebrafish brain tissue between the sexes. Furthermore, zebrafish behavioral sexual dimorphism may be associated with brain sexual dimorphism, with significant differences in brain metabolites. Therefore, to prevent the influence or even bias of behavioral sex differences on results, it is suggested that behavioral studies or behavioral-based other relevant investigations consider sexual dimorphism of behavior and brain.
斑马鱼（Danio rerio）一直是遗传学、生态学、生物学、毒理学和神经行为学研究的有用模型。已经证明斑马鱼存在大脑性别二态性。然而，斑马鱼行为的性别二态性尤其需要我们关注。为了评估斑马鱼的行为和大脑性别二态性，本研究在四个行为领域评估了成年 D. rerio 的性别差异，包括攻击性、恐惧、焦虑和群居性，并进一步比较了雌性和雄性斑马鱼脑组织中的代谢物。我们的研究结果表明，攻击性、恐惧、焦虑和群居行为存在明显的性别二态性。有趣的是，我们还通过一种新的数据分析方法表明，当雌性斑马鱼与雄性斑马鱼群体一起群居时，它们的群居行为显著增加，这是首次提供证据表明，雄性群体有利于显著缓解斑马鱼的焦虑。此外，在雄性和雌性斑马鱼脑组织中存在显著的代谢物变化。此外，斑马鱼行为的性别二态性可能与大脑的性别二态性有关，大脑代谢物存在显著差异。因此，为了防止行为性别差异对结果的影响甚至偏差，建议行为研究或基于行为的其他相关研究考虑行为和大脑的性别二态性。
