Godwin J, Crews D, Warner R R
Department of Zoology, Patterson Laboratories, University of Texas at Austin 78712, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 1996 Dec 22;263(1377):1683-8. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1996.0246.
It is an axiom of vertebrate behavioural endocrinology that full expression of a male behavioural phenotype depends on testicular influences during development, in adulthood, or both. Sex change in fishes challenges this necessity: behavioural changes are often rapid and greatly precede gonadal changes. However, steroid hormones can have fast actions on the nervous system, so gonadal influences on behavioural sex change cannot be excluded based solely on the speed of these changes. We report that surgical gonad removal does not prevent or discernibly alter female-to-male behavioural sex change in a protogynous coral reef fish. Male behaviour assumption is instead purely dependent on attaining social dominance. This is the first example of a vertebrate fully expressing a male behavioural phenotype without current or previous exposure to a functioning testis or testicular products.
脊椎动物行为内分泌学的一个公理是，雄性行为表型的完全表达取决于发育期间、成年期或两者都有的睾丸影响。鱼类的性别转变对这一必要性提出了挑战：行为变化通常很快，而且大大早于性腺变化。然而，类固醇激素可以对神经系统产生快速作用，因此不能仅仅基于这些变化的速度就排除性腺对行为性转变的影响。我们报告说，手术切除性腺并不能阻止或明显改变一种雌性先熟的珊瑚礁鱼类从雌性到雄性的行为性转变。相反，雄性行为的形成完全取决于获得社会优势地位。这是脊椎动物在当前或过去都未接触过正常睾丸或睾丸产物的情况下完全表达雄性行为表型的第一个例子。
