Physiological Aspects of Teleost Oocyte Growth as Exemplified in Fundulus

一种名为Fundulus heteroclitus的鳉鱼在佛罗里达东北部的盐沼中自然产卵，一年中的大部分时间都是半月周期。此外，在每两周3至4天的产卵期，鳉鱼每天只在涨潮时产卵一次。由于鳉鱼的卵母细胞是周期性地募集、生长和排卵，为产卵活动做准备，因此这种动物可以作为周期性雌性生殖活动的极好模型。由垂体分泌的促性腺激素被认为直接调节基本上所有的卵巢活动。pi将从鳉鱼的垂体中纯化促性腺激素，以便制备针对它们的抗体。然后，通过使用适当标记的抗促性腺激素抗体，pi计划确定垂体中的哪些细胞合成和分泌每种鉴定的促性腺激素以及何时发生；pi还将能够测量血液中的促性腺激素水平，并发现这些水平是恒定的还是循环的。这应该允许PI将每种类型的促性腺激素与特定的卵巢事件联系起来。为了更好地了解卵巢的各种细胞如何对循环的促性腺激素作出反应，还将研究卵巢的特定事件。

The killifish, Fundulus heteroclitus, naturally spawns in Northeast Florida salt marshes with semilunar periodicity throughout most of the year. In addition, during the biweekly 3-to 4-day periods of spawning, killifish only spawn once each day coincident with the highest tide. Since killifish oocytes are periodically recruited, grown, and ovulated as eggs in preparation for this spawning activity, this animal can thus serve as a superb model for periodic female reproductive activity. Gonadotropins secreted by the pituitary are thought to directly regulate essentially all ovarian activity. The PIs will purify gonadotropins from killifish pituitaries so that they can prepare antibodies against them. Then, by using appropriately labeled antigonadotropin antibodies, the PIs plan to identify which cells in the pituitary synthesize and secrete each identified gonadotropin and when this occurs; the PIs will also be able to measure gonadotropin levels in the bloodstream and discover whether or not these levels are constant or cycling. This should allow the PI to correlate each type of gonadotropin with specific ovarian events. Specific ovarian events will also be studied in order to better understand how the various cells of the ovary respond to circulating gonadotropin.