Perspectives on the gonadotropin-releasing hormone gonadotropins-monoamines: Relevance to gonadal differentiation and maturation in teleosts

Abstract

Reproduction in fish is essentially regulated by factors originating fromhypothalamo-hypophyseal axis. The neuropeptide, gonadotropin-releasing hormoneregulates the synthesis and release of the gonadotropins (GTHs) from the pituitarythrough monoaminergic systems, which in turn regulate gonadal development. There isan extensive documentation on the evolution and functional roles of GnRH familymembers and their variants. Monoamines influence the GnRH-GTH release throughfeedback regulation by steroids. The release and modulation of GnRH and GTH levelsplay an essential role in puberty and spawning. The role of GnRH-GTH and monoamineswith reference to sexual development is an emerging topic with a lot of interestingfindings in the past decade. In this review, we have discussed several reports explainingthe possibility of the interplay of GnRH-GTH and monoamine axis with reference to sexdifferentiation. © 2013 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.