Conservation and diversity in expression of candidate genes regulating socially-induced female-male sex change in wrasses.

ABSTRACT: Fishes exhibit remarkably diverse, and plastic, patterns of sexual development, most striking of which is sequential hermaphroditism, where individuals readily reverse sex in adulthood. How this stunning example of phenotypic plasticity is controlled at a genetic level remains poorly understood. Several genes have been implicated in regulating sex change, yet the degree to which a conserved genetic machinery orchestrates this process has not yet been addressed. Using captive and in-the-field social manipulations to initiate sex change, combined with a comparative qPCR approach, we compared expression patterns of four candidate regulatory genes among three species of wrasses (Labridae)-a large and diverse teleost family where female-to-male sex change is pervasive, socially-cued, and likely

SUBMITTER: Thomas JT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6568253 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature