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Fishes
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Fish Reproductive Physiology and Aquaculture
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Fish Reproductive Physiology and Aquaculture

A special issue of Fishes (ISSN 2410-3888).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 February 2019) | Viewed by 49236

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yonathan Zohar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, University of Maryland
Interests: Fish reproductive physiology; Molecular endocrinology; Broodstock management; Hatchery technologies; Aquaculture
Dr. Neil Duncan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentarias (IRTA) Crta. Poble Nou, km. 5,5E-43540 Sant Carles de la Rapita Tarragona, Spain
Interests: Fish reproductive physiology; Aquaculture

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This call for papers is focused on advances in fish reproductive physiology to solve reproductive problems of established, emerging and candidate aquaculture species. For the last 40 years, intense and advanced research in fish reproduction has been driven by reproduction-related bottlenecks in aquaculture. Initially, the main problem was the failure of commercially important fish to spawn in captivity. Years of basic research generating better understanding of fish reproduction led to opening the spawning bottleneck and to closing the lifecycle of many fishes, and in-turn enabling the development of hatchery-based, successful aquaculture. Once egg availability was secured and farm production increased then other reproduction-related bottlenecks emerged, such as early or late onset of puberty, growth-reproduction relationships, and the need to develop mono-sex or sterile fish for both enabling better performance and genetic containment for environmental sustainability. Again, fundamental research in fish reproduction became paramount to developing approaches to address these challenges. In the last 10-20 years we saw the emergence of molecular technologies and -omics platforms in the field of fish reproduction, again providing a unique integration of fundamental advances with applied solutions for the aquaculture industry. This Special Issue aims to make a contribution to the current knowledge of reproductive physiology of established, emerging or candidate aquaculture species towards solving bottlenecks that limit aquaculture development of the species in question.

We are pleased to solicit manuscripts pertaining to original research, mini and full reviews, short communications, as well as perspectives, which address any aspect of the reproductive physiology of established, emerging or candidate aquaculture species. Submissions are invited that include, but are not limited to:

  • Endocrine control of reproduction (brain-pituitary-gonad axis), covering hormones, genes and genomes.
  • Environmental regulation of reproductive function in captivity and broodstock management
  • Exogenous control of reproductive function using hormones, gene therapies and germ cell transplantation.
  • Reproductive development: sex determination and differentiation, stem/germ cells, gametogenesis and maturation
  • Breeding behavior, pheromones, spawning, fertilization and sperm-egg interactions
  • Puberty and sterility
  • Gamete (sperm and egg) quality and regulation

Prof. Yonathan Zohar
Dr. Neil Duncan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fishes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Reproduction
  • Maturation
  • Gametogenesis
  • Hormone
  • Spawn
  • Sperm
  • Egg

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

16 pages, 2079 KiB  
Article
Induced Spawning of F1 Wreckfish (Hāpuku) Polyprion oxygeneios Using a Synthetic Agonist of Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone
by Matthew J. Wylie, Alvin N. Setiawan, Glen W. Irvine, Abigail Elizur, Yonathan Zohar, Jane E. Symonds and P. Mark Lokman
Fishes 2019, 4(3), 41; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes4030041 - 8 Jul 2019
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5867
Abstract
Wild-caught hāpuku (Polyprion oxygeneios) spawn readily in captivity, but although first filial (F1) hāpuku complete vitellogenesis, females fail to undergo oocyte maturation and spawn or produce poor quality eggs. This study investigated whether administration of a synthetic agonist of gonadotropin-releasing hormone [...] Read more.
Wild-caught hāpuku (Polyprion oxygeneios) spawn readily in captivity, but although first filial (F1) hāpuku complete vitellogenesis, females fail to undergo oocyte maturation and spawn or produce poor quality eggs. This study investigated whether administration of a synthetic agonist of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRHa) could improve F1 hāpuku spawning and complete the life-cycle in captivity. Spawning trials were conducted over 2 years in 2013 and 2014, when F1 were aged five and six years. In 2013, females previously conditioned under a variable or constant temperature regime were implanted with GnRHa (100 μg/kg−1) or blank implants constructed of powdered cellulose and cholesterol. Spawning was erratic and egg quality very poor in all tanks. No F2 offspring were produced by communal spawning. In contrast, viable F2 larvae were produced by strip-spawning and in vitro fertilization after a series of GnRHa injections. In 2014, two additional trials were conducted: females received ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVAc) matrix implants containing GnRHa (100 μg/kg−1) or blank implants and in the second trial, two GnRHa doses (100 μg/kg−1 and 50 μg/kg−1) were tested. Eggs were first detected in all tanks 12–17 days post-implantation when females received 100 µg/kg−1 GnRHa implants, but not in the lower dose or control tanks. In summary, this study achieved induction of female spawning with GnRHa implants (target dose 100 μg/kg−1) and the successful production of F2 hāpuku in captivity by strip-spawning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fish Reproductive Physiology and Aquaculture)
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15 pages, 5798 KiB  
Article
Transcriptomic Changes during Previtellogenic and Vitellogenic Stages of Ovarian Development in Wreckfish (Hāpuku), Polyprion oxygeneios (Perciformes)
by Matthew J Wylie, Jane E Symonds, Alvin N Setiawan, Glen W Irvine, Hui Liu, Abigail Elizur and P Mark Lokman
Fishes 2019, 4(1), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes4010016 - 28 Feb 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4685
Abstract
‘Wreckfish’ a collective of species belonging to the family Polyprionidae, are an important commercial fishery and have significant aquaculture potential. Until now, genomic or transcriptomic information for any species within the genus Polyprion has either remained unpublished or is non-existent. Using Illumina HiSeq, [...] Read more.
‘Wreckfish’ a collective of species belonging to the family Polyprionidae, are an important commercial fishery and have significant aquaculture potential. Until now, genomic or transcriptomic information for any species within the genus Polyprion has either remained unpublished or is non-existent. Using Illumina HiSeq, we compared the transcriptomes of hāpuku (Polyprion oxygeneios) ovaries to explore developmental stage-specific variations underlying their reproductive physiology. We sought to identify differentially expressed genes and the associated shifts in biological pathways between previtellogenic and early vitellogenic ovaries. Ovarian tissue was repeatedly biopsied by gonopore cannulation from the same females (n = 3) throughout oogenesis. Reproductive status of initial biopsies was confirmed as being previtellogenic and that in biopsies collected eight weeks later as early vitellogenic. A de novo hāpuku transcriptome was assembled (146,189 transcripts) from RNA-Seq data without a reference genome. On average, each tissue sample contained 17.5 million trimmed reads. Gene annotation was 80% when using BLASTX against Genbank Non Redundant database. Fifty-three transcripts were differentially expressed within the FDR of 0.05 when previtellogenic and early vitellogenic ovaries were compared; this reduced to 35 differentially expressed genes when transcript duplications were pooled. Among these were genes tentatively associated with the electron transport chain, lipid metabolism, steroidogenesis and mineral/solute transportation. These data provide a snap-shot into stage-specific physiological events during oogenesis in the ovary of a teleost and an extensive molecular resource for research on species in the Genus Polyprion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fish Reproductive Physiology and Aquaculture)
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20 pages, 4937 KiB  
Article
Description of the Annual Reproductive Cycle of Wreckfish Polyprion americanus in Captivity
by Maria Papadaki, José Benito Peleteiro, Blanca Alvarez-Blázquez, José Luis Rodríguez Villanueva, Fatima Linares, Antonio Vilar, Evaristo Pérez Rial, Nuria Lluch, Ioannis Fakriadis, Irini Sigelaki and Constantinos C. Mylonas
Fishes 2018, 3(4), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes3040043 - 19 Oct 2018
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 5071
Abstract
Successful spontaneous reproduction and the production of viable offspring of wild fish in captivity can take some years of adaptation, and may also involve different environmental conditions, sex ratios and densities compared to natural populations. We followed the reproductive cycle of wreckfish Polyprion [...] Read more.
Successful spontaneous reproduction and the production of viable offspring of wild fish in captivity can take some years of adaptation, and may also involve different environmental conditions, sex ratios and densities compared to natural populations. We followed the reproductive cycle of wreckfish Polyprion americanus—a late maturing, deep-sea benthic species—in captivity in three different broodstocks in Spain under natural photoperiod and temperature, and one broodstock in Greece under a constant temperature of 16 °C for two consecutive years, to describe the reproductive cycle of the species and the associated sex steroid hormone profiles. Oogenesis begun in the fall and post-vitellogenic oocytes of 1250 μm were present between March and June. Males were in spermiation condition and produced good-quality sperm throughout the year, regardless of the temperature profile to which they were exposed. Some females completed oogenesis, underwent oocyte maturation, and spawned spontaneously under both constant and fluctuating temperatures. The sex steroid hormones of both males and females followed the already-known profiles during fish gametogenesis, except for 17,20β-dihydroxy-progesterone, which did not seem to be related to either female or male maturation. The female reproductive dysfunctions that were identified included (a) the arrest of oogenesis at the cortical alveoli stage in certain females; (b) the failure to undergo oocyte maturation in others; and (c) the production of large percentages of unfertilized eggs from the females that spawned spontaneously. Our study suggests that reproduction in captivity is possible in wreckfish maintained under typical marine aquaculture conditions, but that reliable spawning and production of high-quality eggs may require some years of adaptation to captivity, before the reproductive dysfunctions will be overcome. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fish Reproductive Physiology and Aquaculture)
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22 pages, 4289 KiB  
Article
Spawning Induction of First-Generation (F1) Greater Amberjack Seriola dumerili in the Canary Islands, Spain Using GnRHa Delivery Systems
by Salvador Jerez, Ioannis Fakriadis, Maria Papadaki, M. Virginia Martín, Juana Rosa Cejas and Constantinos C. Mylonas
Fishes 2018, 3(3), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes3030035 - 5 Sep 2018
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 6178
Abstract
The development of a sustainable aquaculture industry requires the closing of the life-cycle of a potential species in captivity, and the establishment of breeding selection programs using hatchery-produced breeding stocks. The greater amberjack Seriola dumerili is a cosmopolitan pelagic species that has been [...] Read more.
The development of a sustainable aquaculture industry requires the closing of the life-cycle of a potential species in captivity, and the establishment of breeding selection programs using hatchery-produced breeding stocks. The greater amberjack Seriola dumerili is a cosmopolitan pelagic species that has been considered as a good candidate for the species diversification of aquaculture production in the Mediterranean region. However, commercial production is still very limited due to bottlenecks in reproduction, larval rearing and management control during grow out. The aim of the present study was to examine the reproductive development of hatchery-produced greater amberjack and to develop a spawning induction protocol based on the use of gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) in a controlled-release delivery system. The results showed that hatchery-produced greater amberjack undergo normal gametogenesis and can be induced to undergo maturation, ovulation and spawning after multiple administrations of GnRHa implants, over an extended spawning period lasting from May to September in the Canary Islands, Spain. The use of GnRHa-delivery systems resulted in multiple spawns of fertilized and viable eggs. Egg production was high and egg quality adequate for the implementation of larval rearing for commercial purposes. The handling required to administer the GnRHa implants during the prolonged spawning season did not result in any negative effect on the welfare and reproductive performance of the fish based on evaluation of several biochemical parameters. The developed reproduction control method shows great potential to advance the commercial production of greater amberjack, by enabling the use of hatchery-produced broodstocks for further breeding selection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fish Reproductive Physiology and Aquaculture)
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Review

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14 pages, 3135 KiB  
Review
Structures Associated with Oogenesis and Embryonic Development during Intraovarian Gestation in Viviparous Teleosts (Poeciliidae)
by Mari Carmen Uribe, Gabino De la Rosa Cruz, Adriana García Alarcón, Juan Carlos Campuzano Caballero and María Guadalupe Guzmán Bárcenas
Fishes 2019, 4(2), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes4020035 - 19 Jun 2019
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 7155
Abstract
Viviparity in teleosts involves, invariably, the ovary in a gestational role. This type of viviparity is due to the combination of unique aspects, different from those found in the rest of vertebrates. These aspects are: The ovary has a saccular structure; the germinal [...] Read more.
Viviparity in teleosts involves, invariably, the ovary in a gestational role. This type of viviparity is due to the combination of unique aspects, different from those found in the rest of vertebrates. These aspects are: The ovary has a saccular structure; the germinal epithelium lines the ovarian lumen; the absence of oviducts; and the intraovarian insemination, fertilization, and gestation. The communication of the germinal zone of the ovary to the exterior is via the caudal zone of the ovary—the gonoduct. The germinal epithelium is composed of oogonia and oocytes scattered individually or in cell nests among somatic epithelial cells. In the ovarian stroma the follicles are included which are formed by the oocyte, which is surrounded by follicular cells and the vascularized theca. The oogenesis comprises three stages: chromatin-nucleolus, previtellogenesis, and vitellogenesis. There is no ovulation, as the oocyte is retained in the follicle. During the insemination, the spermatozoa enter into the ovarian lumen and the intrafollicular fertilization occurs, followed by intrafollicular gestation. The intraovarian gestation of poeciliids involves morphological characteristics associated with the intrafollicular embryogenesis and types of nutrition, such as lecithotrophy and matrotrophy. In lecithotrophy, the nutrients come from the yolk reserves stored during oogenesis, whereas in matrotrophy the nutrients are provided by supplies from maternal tissues to the embryo during gestation. The maternal–embryonic metabolic interchanges converge through the development of the association of maternal and embryonic blood vessels, establishing a follicular placenta. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fish Reproductive Physiology and Aquaculture)
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28 pages, 1302 KiB  
Review
Oogenesis and Egg Quality in Finfish: Yolk Formation and Other Factors Influencing Female Fertility
by Benjamin J. Reading, Linnea K. Andersen, Yong-Woon Ryu, Yuji Mushirobira, Takashi Todo and Naoshi Hiramatsu
Fishes 2018, 3(4), 45; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes3040045 - 21 Nov 2018
Cited by 89 | Viewed by 18062
Abstract
Egg quality in fishes has been a topic of research in aquaculture and fisheries for decades as it represents an important life history trait and is critical for captive propagation and successful recruitment. A major factor influencing egg quality is proper yolk formation, [...] Read more.
Egg quality in fishes has been a topic of research in aquaculture and fisheries for decades as it represents an important life history trait and is critical for captive propagation and successful recruitment. A major factor influencing egg quality is proper yolk formation, as most fishes are oviparous and the developing offspring are entirely dependent on stored egg yolk for nutritional sustenance. These maternally derived nutrients consist of proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, minerals, and ions that are transported from the liver to the ovary by lipoprotein particles including vitellogenins. The yolk composition may be influenced by broodstock diet, husbandry, and other intrinsic and extrinsic conditions. In addition, a number of other maternal factors that may influence egg quality also are stored in eggs, such as gene transcripts, that direct early embryonic development. Dysfunctional regulation of gene or protein expression may lead to poor quality eggs and failure to thrive within hours of fertilization. These gene transcripts may provide important markers as their expression levels may be used to screen broodstock for potential spawning success. In addition to such intrinsic factors, stress may lead to ovarian atresia or reproductive failure and can impact fish behavior, fecundity, and ovulation rate. Finally, postovulatory aging may occur when eggs become overripe and the fish fails to spawn in a timely fashion, leading to low fertility, often encountered during manual strip spawning of fish. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fish Reproductive Physiology and Aquaculture)
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