AUTHOR=Shaw Katherine , Therrien Mylène , Lu Chunyu , Liu Xiaochun , Trudeau Vance L. 

TITLE=Mutation of brain aromatase disrupts spawning behavior and reproductive health in female zebrafish

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Endocrinology

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2023.1225199

DOI=10.3389/fendo.2023.1225199

ISSN=1664-2392

ABSTRACT=<p>Aromatase (Cyp19a1) is the steroidogenic enzyme that converts androgens into bioactive estrogens, and hence is in a pivotal position to mediate reproduction and sexual behavior. In teleosts, there are two aromatase paralogs: <italic>cyp19a1a</italic> that is highly expressed in granulosa and Leydig cells in the gonads with critical function in sexual differentiation of the ovary, and <italic>cyp19a1b</italic> that is highly expressed in radial glial cells in the brain with unknown roles in reproduction. <italic>Cyp19a1</italic><sup>-/-</sup> mutant zebrafish lines were used to investigate the importance of the <italic>cyp19a1</italic> paralogs for spawning behavior and offspring survival and early development. Mutation of <italic>cyp19a1b</italic> was found to increase the latency to the first oviposition in females. Mutation of <italic>cyp19a1b</italic> in females also increased the number of eggs spawned; however, significantly more progeny died during early development resulting in no net increase in female fecundity. This finding suggests a higher metabolic cost of reproduction in <italic>cyp19a1b</italic><sup>-/-</sup> mutant females. In males, the combined mutation of both <italic>cyp19a1</italic> paralogs resulted in significantly lower progeny survival rates, indicating a critical function of <italic>cyp19a1</italic> during early larval development. These data establish the specific importance of <italic>cyp19a1b</italic> for female spawning behavior and the importance of the <italic>cyp19a1</italic> paralogs for early larval survival.</p>