Date of Award
5-2016
Culminating Project Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Biological Sciences - Cell and Molecular: M.S.
Department
Biology
College
College of Science and Engineering
First Advisor
Heiko L. Schoenfuss
Second Advisor
William Cook
Third Advisor
Shiju Zhang
Fourth Advisor
Rong-Lin Wang
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Abstract
Male fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) establish social hierarchy. The social status of individual fish is determined by the expression of secondary sex characteristics (SSCs) that develop during the reproductive window, and is vital for reproductive success during the spawning season. The social rank of each male is linked to the concentrations of circulating androgens: testosterone and 11-ketotestosterone that influences the expression of SSCs, and is under the control of hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis. Since the dominant and subordinate males are initially under different physiological conditions, we proposed that they belong to two significantly different subpopulations. Here we demonstrate that male fish population is indeed heterogeneous. This is in contrary to the previously held assumption that single sex exposure populations are homogeneous.
Our results demonstrate that social hierarchy influences the fish responses to the contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). We anticipate our study to be a starting point for re- evaluation of toxicological data analysis in single sex exposure experiments.
Recommended Citation
Ivanova, Jelena, "Social hierarchy modulates biomarker expression in fish exposed to contaminants of emerging concern" (2016). Culminating Projects in Biology. 10.
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/biol_etds/10
Comments/Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all authors of manuscripts that were used in this study, all undergraduate and graduate students who assisted with these experiments, Dr. Cook for support, SETAC for recognition of the importance of this study, and US Fish & Wildlife Services and National Science Foundation for grants that made these studies possible.