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Endocrine and Environmental Control of Sex Differentiation in Gonochoristic Fish

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Reproductive and Developmental Strategies

Part of the book series: Diversity and Commonality in Animals ((DCA))

Abstract

Sex in vertebrates, including fish, is usually determined by genotype. In medaka (Oryzias latipes), a gonochoristic fish with the XX/XY sex determination system, a gene that encodes the DM domain on the Y chromosome is identified as the master sex-determining gene. However, the sex-determining genes in many nonmammalian vertebrates remain unclarified. In contrast, sex determination in some reptiles, amphibians, and fish is influenced greatly by environmental factors. For example, although the genotypic sex determination mechanism in Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) is basically the XX/XY type, genotypic females can be sex reversed to phenotypic males by rearing the larvae at high or low water temperatures during gonadal sex differentiation. In addition, the phenotypic sex of many teleost fish, including flounder, can be experimentally altered by treatment with sex steroid hormones, suggesting an important role for sex steroid hormones in gonadal sex differentiation in fish. In this chapter, we review general information and recent knowledge on the basic mechanisms of sex determination and gonadal sex differentiation, and present the effects of sex steroid hormones and water temperature on gonadal sex differentiation in gonochoristic fish.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto, 860-8555, Japan

    Takeshi Kitano

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  1. Takeshi Kitano
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Correspondence to Takeshi Kitano .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science, Hirosaki University, Hirosaki, Japan

    Kazuya Kobayashi

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science and Technology Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan

    Takeshi Kitano

  3. Laboratory of Reproductive Developmental Biology, Division of Earth Sciences, Biology, and Chemistry, Graduate School of Sciences and Technology for Innovation Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi, Japan

    Yasuhiro Iwao

  4. Misaki Marine Biological Station, Graduate School of Science The University of Tokyo, Miura, Japan

    Mariko Kondo

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Kitano, T. (2018). Endocrine and Environmental Control of Sex Differentiation in Gonochoristic Fish. In: Kobayashi, K., Kitano, T., Iwao, Y., Kondo, M. (eds) Reproductive and Developmental Strategies. Diversity and Commonality in Animals. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56609-0_15

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