Bisexual Fertile Triploid Zebrafish (Danio rerio): a Rare Case

• DOI: 10.1007/s10126-020-09964-5
• Publication Date: 2020-04-20T01:02:17Z
• Authors: Liangyue Peng; Wen Fu; Xianlong Wu; Sheng He; Han Zhao; Jinhui Liu; Wenbin Liu; Yamei Xiao
• Keywords: Male; 0301 basic medicine; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Fertility; Reproduction; Animals; Female; Gonads; Triploidy; Heat-Shock Response; Zebrafish

Previous studies have suggested that artificially induced triploid zebrafish are exclusively male-biased. Owing to greatly inhibited gonadal development for the artificially induced triploid fish, they are regarded to be sterile in general. In this article, partially fertile bisexual triploid zebrafish are produced by suppressing extrusion of the second polar body by heat shock. Histological observation confirms that the early gonadal development of these triploid zebrafish is normal. Backcrossing and self-crossing are used to demonstrate that both the female and male triploid zebrafish have partial reproductive ability. Their dynamic of chromosomes during meiosis is revealed from the chromosome preparations of gonads. Examination of the expressed gonadal development-related genes shows some molecular evidence of the normal gonadal development in the triploid zebrafish. Clearly, these fertile bisexual triploid zebrafish can provide a unique system to study sex determination, as well as aneuploidy associated human diseases such as infertility and pregnancy loss.