Plasma growth hormone levels during sexual maturation in diploid and triploid rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).

Plasma growth hormone concentrations were determined in diploid and triploid rainbow trout of both sexes during sexual maturation. Diploid females grow large ovaries, whereas triploid female trout show no ovarian development. The plasma growth hormone concentration in triploid female trout remained low and unchanged throughout the study, whereas it rose slightly, but significantly, in the diploid females that matured, but not in those that remained immature. On the other hand, triploid males do develop tests like their diploid counterparts. In both groups spermiation was accompanied by a steady rise in the plasma growth hormone concentration. The results suggest that the elevated growth hormone concentration in mature male trout was a consequence not of reproduction per se, but of the loss of condition that accompanied spawning. This hypothesis was supported by the results from the females. Apart from a temporary loss in the mature diploids caused by stripping of the eggs, female trout did not lose condition, neither did they show any change in the plasma growth hormone concentration during the period when they ovulated. These results suggest that it was the nutritional insufficiency accompanying reproduction in male fish that caused the elevation in growth hormone concentration. In fact, a strong negative correlation between the plasma growth hormone concentration and the condition factor of the fish was observed.