Journal
BIOSCIENCE
Volume 58, Issue 11, Pages 1051-1059Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1641/B581108
Keywords
roach; feminization; intersex; effluents; estrogen
Categories
Funding
- Research Councils UK (Natural Environment Research Council and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)
- UK Environment Agency
- UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/F007787/1, NE/C507661/1, NE/C507688/1, NE/G011133/1, NE/C507702/1, NE/C50767X/1, NE/E017363/1, NE/C507710/1, NER/T/S/2002/00182] Funding Source: researchfish
- NERC [NE/G011133/1, NE/E017363/1, NE/F007787/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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Feminization of the mate roach, Rutilus rutilus, a freshwater, group-spawning fish, is widespread in English rivers; among the causative agents are natural and synthetic steroidal estrogens and chemicals that mimic estrogens. In feminized male roach, concentrations of the egg-yolk protein vitellogenin are elevated, sex steroid hormone dynamics, are altered, and gonad development is disrupted (most notably, a female reproductive duct or developing eggs [oocytes] are present in the testis). In some English rivers containing high levels of estrogens, all male roach sampled have been feminized to varying degrees. in the more severely affected males, individuals produce low-quality sperm with a reduced capability for fertilization. Laboratory studies have shown that the environmental estrogens responsible for inducing gonadal feminization in roach can also alter reproductive behavior, disrupting normal breeding dynamics (parentage) in the zebrafish, another group-spawning fish. Together these findings indicate that feminization of wild roach may result in adverse population-level effects, but this hypothesis has yet to be fully addressed.
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