Fish Gonadogenesis. Part 1: Genetic and Environmental Mechanisms of Sex Determination

Citation

Penman D & Piferrer F (2008) Fish Gonadogenesis. Part 1: Genetic and Environmental Mechanisms of Sex Determination. Reviews in Fisheries Science, 16 (S1), pp. 16-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/10641260802324610

Abstract
Many species of fish produced in aquaculture or for the ornamental fish trade exhibit sexual dimorphism in growth, age at maturity, secondary sexual characters or other traits of interest. This has led to a desire to produce populations of only one sex for commercial ongrowing. Although direct sex reversal via manipulation of sex differentiation is used commercially (e.g., in tilapia aquaculture), in most cases there is a need to understand the sex determination system to some extent and manipulate this to produce monosex fish. Sex determination is the genetic or environmental process that establishes the sex (gender) of an organism, whereas sex differentiation is the process by which an undifferentiated gonad is transformed into an ovary or a testis. Fish are the most diverse group of vertebrates in terms of sex determination, and the number of fish species of interest to aquaculture keeps increasing. Together, these aspects explain the growing interest to understand how sex determination and differentiation produce the sex ratio. This review concentrates on recent research using the tools of molecular biology to broaden our understanding of the different aspects related to fish sex determination, both in model fish species and in species of commercial importance.

Keywords
sex ratio; sex chromosomes; sex-determining loci; sex-specific markers; sex-linked markers; environmental sex determination; temperature-dependent sex determination; aromatase; QTL; Sex discrimination in sports; Sex Chromosomes genetics; Sex determination, Genetic; Aquaculture

Journal
Reviews in Fisheries Science: Volume 16, Issue S1