The pituitary gland controls many important physiological processes in vertebrates, including growth, homeostasis, and reproduction. As in mammals, the teleost pituitary exhibits a high degree of plasticity. This plasticity permits changes in hormone production and secretion necessary to meet the fluctuating demands over the life of an animal. Pituitary plasticity is achieved at both cellular and population levels. At the cellular level, hormone synthesis and release can be regulated via changes in cell composition to modulate both sensitivity and response to different signals. At the cell population level, the number of cells producing a given hormone can change due to proliferation, differentiation of progenitor cells, or transdifferentiation of specific cell types. Gonadotropes, which play an important role in the control of reproduction, have been intensively investigated during the last decades and found to display plasticity. To ensure appropriate endocrine function, gonadotropes rely on external and internal signals integrated at the brain level or by the gonadotropes themselves. One important group of internal signals is the sex steroids, produced mainly by the gonadal steroidogenic cells. Sex steroids have been shown to exert complex effects on the teleost pituitary, with differential effects depending on the species investigated, physiological status or sex of the animal, and dose or method of administration. This review summarizes current knowledge of the effects of sex steroids (androgens and estrogens) on gonadotrope cell plasticity in teleost anterior pituitary, discriminating direct from indirect effects.

In vertebrates, the anterior pituitary plays a crucial role in regulating several essential physiological processes via the secretion of at least seven peptide hormones by different endocrine cell types. Comparative and comprehensive knowledge of the spatial distribution of those endocrine cell types is required to better understand their physiological functions. Using medaka as a model and several combinations of multi-color fluorescence in situ hybridization, we present the first 3D atlas revealing the gland-wide distribution of seven endocrine cell populations: lactotropes, thyrotropes, Lh and Fsh gonadotropes, somatotropes, and pomca-expressing cells (corticotropes and melanotropes) in the anterior pituitary of a teleost fish. By combining in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence techniques, we deciphered the location of corticotropes and melanotropes within the pomca-expressing cell population. The 3D localization approach reveals sexual dimorphism of tshba-, pomca-, and lhb-expressing cells in the adult medaka pituitary. Finally, we show the existence of bi-hormonal cells co-expressing lhb-fshb, fshb-tshba and lhb-sl using single-cell transcriptomics analysis and in situ hybridization. This study offers a solid basis for future comparative studies of the teleost pituitary and its functional plasticity.

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The article describes a quick protocol to gonadectomize and sample blood from small teleost fish, using medaka (Oryzias latipes) as a model, to investigate the role of sex steroids in animal physiology.

Sex steroids, produced by the gonads, play an essential role in the neuroendocrine control of reproduction in all vertebrates by providing feedback to the brain and pituitary. Sex steroids also play an important role in tissue plasticity by regulating cell proliferation in several tissues including the brain and the pituitary. Therefore, investigating the role of sex steroids and mechanisms by which they act is crucial to better understand both feedback mechanism and tissue plasticity. Teleost fish, which possess a higher degree of tissue plasticity and variations in reproduction strategies compared to mammals, appear to be useful models to investigate these questions. The removal of the main source of sex steroid production using gonadectomy together with blood sampling to measure steroid levels, have been well-established and fairly feasible in bigger fish and are powerful techniques to investigate the role and effects of sex steroids. However, small fish such as zebrafish and medaka, which are particularly good model organisms considering the well-developed genetic toolkit and the numerous protocols available to investigate their biology and physiology, raise challenges for applying such protocols due to their small size. Here, we demonstrate the step-by-step procedure of gonadectomy in both males and females followed by blood sampling in a small sized teleost model, the Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes). The use of these procedures combined with the other advantages of using these small teleost models will greatly improve our understanding of feedback mechanisms in the neuroendocrine control of reproduction and tissue plasticity provided by sex steroids in vertebrates.SUMMARYThe article describes a quick protocol to gonadectomize and sample blood from small teleost fish, using medaka (Oryzias latipes) as a model, to investigate the role of sex steroids in animal physiology.