The gonads of 107 spontaneous, chromosomal mosaic, day-15 fetal hermaphrodites derived from BALB/cWt strain male mice are described and photographs of seven gonads representative of the major types are presented. There were 16 ovaries, 15 testes, and 183 ovotestes. The ovotestes contained on the average more testicular tissue than ovarian, and the ovarian tissue was more frequently located at t...

The reproductive strategies of the sea urchin, Paracentrotus lividus, was studied in the Bay of Tunis. Samples were collected monthly, from September 1993 to August 1995, in two sites which differ in their marine vegetation and their exposure to wave action. Histological examination demonstrated a cycle of gametogenesis with six reproductive stages and a main breeding period occurring between A...

A variety of mechanisms are engaged in sex determination in vertebrates. The teleost fish swamp eel undergoes sex reversal naturally and is an ideal model for vertebrate sexual development. However, the importance of proteome-wide scanning for gonad reversal was not previously determined. We report a 2-D electrophoresis analysis of three gonad types of proteomes during sex reversal. MS/MS analy...

To determine the effects of feeding or starvation on resource allocation to body components during the reproductive cycle of Sphaerechinus granularis, sea urchins were placed in laboratory tanks and either fed ad libitum or starved during two different periods of their biological cycle, i.e. the mature stage and the recovery stage. The urchin growth was monitored over the whole experimental per...

This study attempts to look into the energetic status of demersal fish species with their maturity stages and evaluate their energetic condition. Demersal fish species from wild were captured, total length and weight of each fish were measured and gonads were observed, weighted and collected with fish flesh. Gonadosomatic index, water content of gonad and flesh and gonadal and somatic caloric v...

Female birds develop asymmetric gonads: a functional ovary develops on the left, whereas the right gonad regresses. In males, however, testes develop on both sides. We examined the distribution of germ cells using Vasa/Cvh as a marker. Expression is asymmetric in both sexes: at stage 35 the left gonad contains significantly more germ cells than the right. A similar expression pattern is seen fo...

The reproductive strategies of the sea urchin, Paracentrotus lividus, was studied in the Bay of Tunis. Samples were collected monthly, from September 1993 to August 1995, in two sites which differ in their marine vegetation and their exposure to wave action. Histological examination demonstrated a cycle of gametogenesis with six reproductive stages and a main breeding period occurring between A...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that play key roles in the regulation of development processes of many tissues and organs at the post-transcriptional level. However, little is known about how they affect chicken gonadal development. We examined the expression of four miRNAs (miR-218, -200b, -196, and -206) in chicken embryonic gonads at embryonic days 3.5-6.5. Their target...

We compared the temporal dynamics of gametogenesis in diploid and triploid Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) using histology. Oysters were reared in an estuarine farming site in Brittany over 3 years and their gametogenesis was monitored over the exceptionally hot summer of 2003. Both diploids and triploids showed active gametogenesis, but a high proportion of triploids remained at early stag...

Autoimmune gonad destruction was induced in Atlantic salmon of both sexes in trials carried out on fish kept in sea cages on a fish farm. Damage to gonads was only found in fish where the first injection of gonad extract had been given together with Complete Freund's Adjuvant, injections without adjuvant or with carrageenan as an adjuvant were unsuccessful. Length and weight differences between...