Abstract
Zebrafish (Danio rerio) adults are viewed as sexually dimorphic. However, current approaches to sex discrimination rely mainly on subjective assessment of color patterns and body structures. Here, we explore how geometric morphometrics allow for quantitative sex discrimination based on overall body geometry of adult zebrafish (aged 12-24 months). Ten homologous landmarks were placed on the left lateral view of adult zebrafish and transformed through Procrustes superimposition before being analyzed with canonical variate analysis. We compared two models to distinguish between sexes. The first model consisted of landmarks that included the abdominal region and the second model did not. Males and females clearly diverged along a single canonical variate, and jackknife testing reinforced the strength of the sorting algorithm with 100% correct assignment of sex for both models. Analysis of body geometry demonstrated that males have a longer caudal peduncle, a more streamlined ventral region, and slightly more inferior placement of eyes than females. Based on these results we developed a logistic regression equation using the ratio of ventral caudal peduncle length to standard length to provide researchers a reliable and objective method for sex discrimination in zebrafish.
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