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The effect of methyltestosterone (MT) on sex differentiation and growth in juvenile yellow perch (Perca flavescens)

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Abstract

A study was conducted to evaluate the gonad differentiation of juvenile yellow perch (YP, Perca flavencens) and determine the latest labile period related to hormone treatment. Juvenile fish were subjected to two dietary concentrations of methyltestosterone (MT; 20 and 50 mg/kg feed) for 60 days in three (3) age groups of 38-, 46-, and 67-days post-hatching (dph), where control group were fed with standard commercial feed. Following a 10-month on-growing period, sex phenotypes were determined by gross and histological gonad morphology. Results showed the juvenile YP responded to the exogenous hormone when it was applied at 38 dph for both 20 and 50 mg/kg feed resulting in 100% males. At 46 dph, only 50 mg/kg feed resulted in 100% males. Both MT-treated at 38 and 46 dph significantly differed (P < 0.01) from the expected normal population of male:female (1:1). MT-treated at 67 dph resulted in 37% and 25% intersex fish for both 20 and 50 mg/kg feed dosage groups, respectively. MT-treated at 38 and 46 dph promoted growth and showed significantly heavier mean body weight (P < 0.05) compared to control. The gonadosomatic index (GSI) of MT-treated at 38 and 46 dph was significantly lower than that in control. This study provides the first evidence that juvenile YP can be successfully masculinized when the treatment is initiated at the age of up to 46 dph. The result is important for sex control in aquaculture.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Bradford Sherman for his comments on the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded to the Corresponding Author, Han-Ping Wang (Award No. 2021–70007-34785). Salaries and research support were provided by state and federal funds appropriated to The Ohio State University.

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Author notes

  1. Rafidah Othman and Xiao-Jun Ron contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ohio Center for Aquaculture Research and Development, The Ohio State University South Centers, 1864 Shyville Road, OH, 45661, Piketon, USA

    Rafidah Othman, Xiao-Jun Ron, Hong Yao, Paul O’Bryant, Dean Rapp & Han-Ping Wang

  2. Borneo Marine Research Institute, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, UMS, Kota Kinabalu, 88400, Sabah, Malaysia

    Rafidah Othman

  3. Laboratory for Marine Fisheries and Aquaculture, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao-Jun Ron

  4. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Jing-Chen Pei & Hong-Juan Wu

Authors
  1. Rafidah Othman
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  2. Xiao-Jun Ron
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Contributions

Han-Ping Wang—principal investigator, funding aquisation, resources, supervision, design, writing, revising.

Rafidah Othman—performed experiments, data collections, data analysis, interpretation, writing original draft, manuscript revising.

Xiao-Jun Ron—performed experiments, data collection, data analysis, interpretation.

Hong Yao – resources, lab equipments, samples, data collections.

Paul O’Bryant – assisted in setting up and conducting the experiment in wet lab.

Dean Rapp- assisted in setting up and conducting the experiment in wet lab.

Jing-Chen Pei – participated in experimental performance and manuscript revising

Hong-Juan Wu – participated in experiment design, performance and manucript revising

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hong-Juan Wu or Han-Ping Wang.

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We confirmed that all the experiments and fish individuals involved were in accordance with the animal care and experimental procedures that were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Ohio State University.

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Othman, R., Ron, XJ., Yao, H. et al. The effect of methyltestosterone (MT) on sex differentiation and growth in juvenile yellow perch (Perca flavescens). Fish Physiol Biochem 48, 161–171 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-021-01038-0

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