Abstract
Coral reefs are one of the most species-rich environments. Various habitat-specialist gobies are known to exhibit labile sexual patterns as an adaptive strategy to narrow econiches. In this study, the habitat use, social group composition, and gonad structure of the coral-dwelling toothy goby Pleurosicya mossambica were investigated on the reefs of Kuchierabu-jima Island, southern Japan, by field sampling and histological observation of their gonads. The goby was found to inhabit both hard and soft corals. Males were larger than females, and a sexually transitional individual was confirmed. These results suggest a possibility of protogynous sexuality in P. mossambica. Females exhibited ovaries with precursive accessory gonadal structures, whereas males had testes with accessory gonadal structures. This type of gonad structure was reported in phylogenetically different groups of protogynous gobies, suggesting that the same gonad structures may evolve independently in Pleurosicya species.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to T. Tomiyama, K. Nakamoto, R. Matsuo, R. Seiwa, I. Nakamoto, and all other members of the Biology of Aquatic Resources Laboratory for supporting us throughout this research. We thank T. Mezaki and T. Koido (Kuroshio Research Institute) for their kind support in the taxonomic identification of the host coral species. We appreciate the people of Kuchierabu-jima Island for providing permission to conduct the present study. We would like to thank de la Paz M.E. (Hiroshima University) and Editage [http://www.editage.com] for editing and reviewing this manuscript for the English language. This work was supported by a Sasakawa Scientific Research Grant (no. 2022-4001) from The Japan Science Society, and a JST SPRING Grant (no. JPMJSP2132).
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All procedures performed in this study followed the Guidelines for the Proper Conduct of Animal Experiments and related activities laid down by the Hiroshima University Animal Research Committee (No. 004A200821 certified on August 21st, 2020).
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Oyama, T., Abe, K., Sunobe, T. et al. Protogynous sexuality and gonad structures in the coral-dwelling goby Pleurosicya mossambica. Ichthyol Res 71, 174–179 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-023-00910-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-023-00910-8