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Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Dissection of Larval Zebrafish Gonadal Tissue
Published on: April 26, 2017
Expression of three gonadotropin subunits in Southern catfish gonad and their possible roles during early gonadal
Fengrui Wu1, Xiuyue Zhang, Weili Zhang
1Key Laboratory of Eco-environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Aquatic Science of Chongqing, School of Life Science, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Abstract:
The three gonadotropin (GtH) subunit cDNAs, GtHalpha, FSHbeta and LHbeta, which contain complete open reading frames were isolated from Southern catfish (Silurus meridionalis Chen) ovary. RT-PCR revealed that GtHalpha, FSHbeta and LHbeta mRNA were expressed in ovary, female and male pituitaries, but not in testis. Ontogeny study showed that GtHalpha and FSHbeta expressed in ovary from 25 dah (days after hatching) and LHbeta expressed from 40 dah onwards. The expression levels of these genes in all-female Southern catfish gonad were down-regulated after treatment with tamoxifen from 5 to 25 dah when measured at 65 dah. These results indicated the involvement of the three subunits in gonadal development and sexual differentiation.
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