Behavioral difference between juvenile male and female rainbow trouts

Chinmaya SadangiDepartment of Neuroscience/Physiology D1:2

Supervised by Professor Svante Winberg

Outline

• Introduction• Objective• Protocol• Results • Statistics• Future Directions

SEX DETERMINATION IN JUVENILES

It is arduous to diffrentiate between a male and a female trout because

• No external featres• No color diffrentiation

BUT • Can be determined by histology

Juvenile Rainbow Trout

Male Rainbow Trout Female Rainbow Trout

Objective

• Deterime the sex of the juvenile rainbow trout without using histology

• To see, if there is any difference between aggression and dominance in male and female

rainbow trouts.

ProtocolFin clips from fish

Multiplex PCR using sdY and 18s Primers

Isolate males and females in seperate holding tanks.

Social interaction among males and females

Blood and brain collection

Cortisol analysis

qPCR, HPLC and Androgen levels(Future research)

What do we obtain from PCR?

Males Females

WHAT WOULD YOU DO WHEN YOU MEET SOMEONE FROM THE OPPOSITE SEX?

WELL, THE SAME DOESN’T APPLY FOR THE RAINBOW TROUTS.

Circle

Attack by biting on the fins, belly and the tail.

Eventually, one fish gives up – goes and stays on the top.

The other swims around and tries to attack, nip or chase

One becomes SOCIALLY DOMINANT

and the other is

SOCIALLY SUBORDINATE

Weight difference

Results from Fight

Attacks

Cortisol level P < 0.05

Conclusion

• Sex can be determined in juvenile trouts by using PCR.

• There is significant behavioural difference among males and females.

• Males are more aggressive than females and made more number of attacks as compared to a females.

• Cortisol level in males were low as compared to females.

Future Research

• Androgen levels would be checked.• qPCR to identify gene expression in

telencephalon and the cerebellum• HPLC to identify brain monoamines

Thank you

Prof. Svante Winberg, Supervisor & Group

Leader, Uppsala University

Per-Ove Thronqvist, Co-Supervisor & Researcher, Uppsala

University

Thanks for Listening and time for discussion !