Authors
Mengmeng Wang, Chaoyu Wang, Yang Gao, Junkang Wu, Zhe Zhao, Yan Shi
Published in
The Journal of steroid biochemistry and molecular biology. Pages 107139. Oct 26, 2026. Epub Oct 26, 2026.
Abstract
Temperature, either elevated or reduced, affects gonadal development and sex differentiation in teleost fish. Yet, the underlying mechanisms in the obscure puffer (Takifugu obscurus) remain largely unexplored. In this study, juvenile obscure puffers at 45 days post-hatching (dph) were treated under low (15 ℃) and high (33 ℃) temperatures with fish reared at normal temperature (25 ℃) set as the control. After treatment, the expression of genes involved in steroid hormone biosynthesis and sex differentiation was evaluated. Histological results showed that low temperature inhibited ovarian development, while high temperature promoted it. By contrast, temperature had no significant effect on testicular development. In females exposed to low temperature, the transcript levels of the steroidogenic genes 17β-hsd1, 17β-hsd3, and 17β-hsd12a were markedly downregulated after 45 days of treatment relative to the control group, whereas in high-temperature exposure, genes like cyp17a1, 17β-hsd1, 17β-hsd3, and 17β-hsd8 were upregulated in females but showed no notable changes in males. Additionally, the expression levels of genes associated with females declined over time under normal temperatures, whereas they increased initially and then decreased under low temperatures. Temperature treatments barely changed on the expression of male-associated genes. Overall, our data suggest that low temperature retards ovarian development and suppresses the activity of genes involved in the steroidogenic pathway, whereas males are less sensitive to temperature changes.
PMID:
42933697
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 27 Oct 2026.
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