Ontogeny and sexual dimorphism of sonic muscle in the oyster toadfish

Abstract

Previous work has shown that neurons in the sonic motor nucleus of the oyster toadfish, Opsanus tau, grow larger in males than in females and increase in size and number for 7–8 years. In order to correlate postnatal motoneuron development with growth of target muscle fibers, we examined the ontogeny of sonic muscle growth. Both the swim bladder and attached sonic muscles increased in size for life and were, respectively, 20 and 44% larger in males than in females. The muscle and swim bladder grew at an equivalent rate in males, whereas in females, muscle growth did not keep up with bladder growth. The number of muscle fibers increased about 16-fold (31 000 to 488 000), and mean minimum fiber diameter increased almost 3-fold (11.5 to 28.6 μm) as fish grew. Fibers were 15.3% larger in females than in males (adjusted means of 21.9 and 19.0 μm, respectively), but males had 47% more fibers per muscle (adjusted means of 307 000 and 209 000). Muscle fibers also exhibited morphological changes. Most of the fibers in two juveniles had yet to differentiate the core of sarcoplasm characteristic of sonic muscle, whereas the largest cells in mature males and females tended to have multiple pockets of sarcoplasm and a contractile cylinder split into fragments. Multiple pockets in large fibers and the presence of smaller fibers in males than females are interpreted as adaptations for increased speed and fatigue resistance.