ABSTRACT To evaluate the involvement of plasma cortisol in sex determination in hermaphrodite protandrous sex-changing fish, sexually immature false clown anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris) were kept in groups of 3 individuals for 360 days. Observations of time-course changes of diurnal behaviour and plasma concentrations of cortisol, oestradiol, and 11-ketotestosterone were evaluated. The social hierarchy of the experimental groups was assumed to become stable during the middle period of the experiment, but unstable at the beginning and at the end according to the increase or decrease in the frequencies of agonistic behaviours. The plasma concentration of cortisol increased as the social hierarchy became unstable and oestradiol showed the opposite trend to cortisol. These results suggest that in protandrous anemonefish sex determination induced by social interaction is mediated by cortisol. The stability of the social hierarchy is considered to be very important for the sex determination process.

中文翻译：

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社会稳定性对假小丑海葵（Amphiprion ocellaris）性别决定过程的影响

摘要 为了评估血浆皮质醇在雌雄同体性变性鱼性别决定中的作用，将性未成熟的假小丑海葵鱼（Amphiprion ocellaris）分成 3 只一组饲养 360 天。对昼夜行为的时间过程变化和皮质醇、雌二醇和 11-酮睾酮的血浆浓度的观察进行了评估。假设实验组的社会等级在实验中期变得稳定，但在开始和结束时会随着对抗行为频率的增加或减少而变得不稳定。随着社会等级变得不稳定，皮质醇的血浆浓度增加，雌二醇显示出与皮质醇相反的趋势。这些结果表明，在海葵鱼中，由社会互动诱导的性别决定是由皮质醇介导的。社会等级的稳定性被认为对性别决定过程非常重要。