Background

Anti-Müllerian hormone (Amh) plays a critical role in both early sex determination and later gonad development in vertebrate species. However, it remains unknown in northern snakehead (Channa argus), which is economically important freshwater fish with sexual dimorphism.

Objective

This study aimed to identify the expression profiles and estrogenic regulation of CaAmh during gonadal sex differentiation in C. argus.

Methods

The cDNA and genomic DNA sequences of CaAmh were identified by PCR and RACE techniques. The expression patterns of CaAmh were detected by qRT-PCR during the gonadal sex differentiation and after 17α-ethinyloestradiol (EE2) treatments.

Results

CaAmh is composed of seven exons and six introns, and its full-length cDNA is 2413 bp in length, with 1635 bp open reading frame (ORF) that encodes a 544 amino acid protein. Tissues expression patterns revealed that CaAmh display the highest expression in testis of XY males (40.36 folds, p < 0.01). The spatio-temporal expression patterns during gonadal sex differentiation indicated that CaAmh expression differed between XX females and XY males at 30 day after hatching (dah), and reached to the peak (36.03 folds, p < 0.01) at 90 dah in XY gonads. However, CaAmh expression in XX gonads remained low throughout the sampling period. Furthermore, CaAmh expression in the gonads (ovaries) of the sex-reversed XY fish (XY-F) by the administration of estrogen EE2 was downregulated to low level, similar to that in ovaries of normal XX females (XX-F).

Conclusions

These results show that Amh plays a critical role in testicular differentiation of C. argus and it is apparently modulated by estrogens in this species.

中文翻译：

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北部蛇头（Channa argus）性腺性别分化过程中Amh的表达特征和雌激素调节。

背景

抗苗勒管激素（Amh）在脊椎动物的早期性别决定和性腺发育中都起着至关重要的作用。然而，它在北部的蛇头（Channa argus）中仍是未知的，该蛇头是具有重要两性异形的经济上重要的淡水鱼。

目的

本研究旨在确定的表达谱和雌激素调节CaAmh在性腺分化过程中乌鳢。

方法

通过PCR和RACE技术鉴定了CaAmh的cDNA和基因组DNA序列。在性腺性别分化过程中和17α-乙炔雌二醇（EE2）处理后，通过qRT-PCR检测CaAmh的表达模式。

结果

CaAmh由七个外显子和六个内含子组成，其全长cDNA长度为2413 bp，具有1635 bp的开放阅读框（ORF），编码544个氨基酸。组织表达模式显示，CaAmh在XY男性的睾丸中显示最高的表达（40.36倍，p  <0.01）。性腺性别分化过程中的时空表达模式表明，在孵化后第30天（dah），XX雌性和XY雄性之间的CaAmh表达有所不同，并且 在XY性腺中以90 dah达到峰值（36.03倍，p <0.01）。但是，在整个采样期间，XX性腺中的CaAmh表达仍然较低。此外，CaAmh 雌激素EE2导致性反转XY鱼（XY-F）的性腺（卵巢）中的表达下调至较低水平，与正常XX雌性（XX-F）卵巢中的表达相似。

结论

这些结果表明，AMH扮演的睾丸分化中起关键作用乌鳢并且它显然是该物种的雌激素调节。