Successful spermatogonial stem cells transplantation within
Pleuronectiformes: first breakthrough at inter-family level in marine
fish
Abstract
As a promising biotechnology, fish germ cell transplantation shows
potentials in conservation germplasm resource, propagation of elite
species, and generation of transgenic individuals. In this study, we
successfully transplanted the Japanese flounder (P. olivaceus), summer
flounder (P. dentatus), and turbot (S. maximus) spermatogonia into
triploid Japanese flounder larvae, and achieved high transplantation
efficiency of 100%, 75-95% and 33-50% by fluorescence tracking and
molecular analysis, respectively. Eventually, donor-derived spermatozoa
produced offspring by artificial insemination. We only found male and
intersex chimeras in inter-family transplantations, while male and
female chimeras in both intra-species and intra-genus transplantations.
Moreover, the intersex chimeras could mature and produce turbot
functional spermatozoa. We firstly realized inter-family transplantation
in marine fish species. These results demonstrated successful
spermatogonial stem cells transplantation within Pleuronectiformes,
suggesting the germ cells migration, incorporation and maturation within
order were conserved across a wide range of teleost species.