Synopsis
In immature and adult females of protogynous gobies, small distinctive masses of cells associated with the ovarian wall develop into testis-associated glandular structures during sex change. These precursive accessory gonadal structures, or pAGS, have been found in females of known protogynous goby species, but not among gonochoric goby species, suggesting that their presence can be used as a species-specific indicator of protogyny within the family. However, a detailed examination of a developmental series of ovaries in two gonochoric species, Gobiosoma illecebrosum and G. saucrum, revealed the presence of a gonadal feature previ-ously thought to be restricted to protogynous gobies. Among immature females of both species, pAGS-like structures having a similar appearance and placement as functional pAGS of protogynous gobies were found. In female G. illecebrosum, the size of these structures among immatures progressively decreased with maturation and were absent in all but the smallest adult females. A similar pattern was evident in a small sample of G. saucrum. Population demography based on field collections showed that G. illecebrosum exhibits sex ratios and male and female size-frequency distributions typical of gonochores and laboratory experiments indicated that final sexual identity was unaffected by social environment during the juvenile period. Thus, the presence of p AGS in juvenile female G. illecebrosum is not related to an ability to change sex at that ontogenic interval. Whether the transient PAGS observed here are vestiges of an ancestral protogynous condition is unknown. Based on their presence among immatures in two gonochore gobies, however, only the presence of pAGS in adult females should be used to predict protogyny among gobies.
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Cole, K.S., Robertson, D.R., Cedeno, A.A. (1994). Does gonad structure reflect sexual pattern in all gobiid fishes?. In: Balon, E.K., Bruton, M.N., Noakes, D.L.G. (eds) Women in ichthyology: an anthology in honour of ET, Ro and Genie. Developments in environmental biology of fishes 15, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0199-8_23
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