The fertility of the hybrid lineage derived from female Megalobrama amblycephala × male Culter alburnus.

Distant hybridization can combine together the genomes of different species, which leads to changes of the offspring in phenotypes and genotypes. In this study, we successfully establish a fertile hybrid lineage by intergeneric hybridization of female blunt snout bream (BSB, Megalobrama amblycephala) × male topmouth culter (TC, Culter alburnus) and investigate some important biological traits of this lineage including the morphological traits, chromosomal number, karyotype, DNA content, gonadal development, egg and milt yield, sperm shape and density, fertilization rate and early survival rate. The results show that: (1) the diploid and triploid hybrids coexist in F1 and only diploid hybrids are found in F2, in which the diploid hybrids of F1 and F2 possess 48 chromosomes with one chromosome set of BSB and one chromosome set of TC, and the triploid hybrids of F1 possess 72 chromosomes with two chromosome sets of BSB and one chromosome set of TC. (2) All the tested males and females of the diploid F1 and F2 hybrids have the normal gonadal development and produce mature sperm and egg, respectively, which are fertilized with each other to form F2 and F3 hybrids, respectively, and finally form a diploid hybrid lineage (F1-F3). (3) The good fertility of the F1 and F2 hybrids of female BSB × male TC potentially provides reproductive base to make the hybrid lineage propagate from one generation to another. The formation of the hybrid lineage (F1-F3) also provides an ideal model to research the reproductive rules of distant hybrid progeny.

Characterization and dietary regulation of glutamate dehydrogenase in different ploidy fishes.

Glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) plays a crucial role in amino acid deamination and has been used as an inductor of nutrients metabolism. In this study, we cloned and analyzed the GDH cDNAs in diploids (red crucian carp), triploids and tetraploids and characterized their expression profiles upon dietary treatments. Results showed a high sequence similarity of GDH among the three kinds of ploidy fishes and other vertebrates. Expression analysis revealed that GDH exhibited a distinct spatial pattern of expression in different types of fishes. The triploids and tetraploids had higher levels of expression than diploids in heart, liver, gill, muscle, fore-gut and mid-gut. The GDH expression was also developmentally regulated with a stronger expression around blastula stage. The maternal GDH transcripts were first detected from eggs and their expression dropped down from the gastrula stage to heart beat stage. Adult triploids showed the highest levels of GDH expression in liver during breeding season which may contribute to the good appetite and fast growth. In addition, triploids exhibited high growth rates and excess GDH expression compared with other two types of fishes. The liver GDH enzyme activities were also higher in triploids than red crucian carp and tetraploids. Moreover, GDH expression is regulated by dietary protein levels. Fish fed with either high or low protein diets showed higher levels of GDH expression. In summary, our results demonstrated for the first time that the different ploidy fishes had different patterns of GDH mRNA expression during development, breeding and non-breeding seasons, and as well dietary effects from different protein levels in diet. These data indicate that abundant GDH expression may play an important role in growth rates in triploids.