Abstract
Background: Environmental stressors (e.g., reduced food availability, endocrine disrupting chemicals) are known to disrupt endocrine function in fishes, potentially delaying the age of puberty and affecting gamete quality. Recent experiments in our lab have revealed that prolonged fasting of previtellogenic coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch ) impairs endocrine function and increases follicular atresia [1]. However, little is known about the molecular processes in the ovary that either regulate atresia or are consequences of atresia. We hypothesized that a nutritional stress that perturbs normal ovarian growth and induces follicular atresia would alter the pattern of gene expression in the gonads. Indeed, in a recent fasting experiment we found that expression of some steroidogenesis-related genes (e.g., steroidogenic acute regulatory protein ) decreased in fasted salmon, while expression of apoptosis-related genes (e.g., caspase 3 , caspase 8 and fas-associated death domain ) were elevated in fasted fish relative to fed fish [1]. The primary aim of this study was to identify additional gene transcripts that are up- or downregulated in the previtellogenic salmon ovary when ovarian growth is impaired by prolonged fasting. A second goal of the study was to identify candidate genes that might serve as molecular markers of the initiation of atresia. Methods:
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