Hypophysiotrophic systems in the brain of the Atlantic salmon. Neuronal innervation of the pituitary and the origin of pituitary dopamine and nonapeptides identified by means of combined carbocyanine tract tracing and immunocytochemistry.

The neuroanatomical organization of neurons projecting to the pituitary and the origin of pituitary dopamine and nonapeptides were investigated in the brain of the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). Carbocyanine tract tracing in combination with tyrosine hydroxylase, arginine vasotocin and isotocin immunocytochemistry for double labelling revealed a previously unknown organization of hypophysiotrophic cell groups and their extrahypothalamic projections, and provide the first direct identification in a teleost fish of the origin of the dopaminergic and nonapeptidergic innervation of the pituitary. The present data include identification of (1) hypophysiotrophic neurons in the ventral telencephalon and in the periventricular preoptic nucleus, (2) large (magnocellular) vasotocinergic hypophysiotrophic neurons in the most rostral extension of the preoptic area, (3) a distinct neuronal group located in a supraoptic/suprachiasmatic position in the anterior periventricular nucleus, that seems to be the major source of dopaminergic innervation of the pituitary, (4) the nonapeptidergic hypophysiotrophic neurons in the preoptic nucleus, (5) hypophysiotrophic neurons in the ventral and posterior hypothalamus of which some are of liquor-contacting type, (6) projections from hypophysiotrophic and non-hypophysiotrophic neurons in the preoptic nucleus to extrahypothalamic areas such as thalamic and periventricular pretectal nuclei, and (7) subdivisions within the preoptic nucleus that exhibit different combinations of hypophysiotrophic and extrahypothalamic efferent connections. Together with previous studies of retinohypothalamic projections and neurochemical organization of hypothalamic/preoptic areas, the present data suggest that the preoptic nucleus and the anterior periventricular nucleus in teleosts possess functional subdivisions with features that resemble those of the paraventricular, supraoptic and suprachiasmatic nuclei of other vertebrates. In the Atlantic salmon, specific dopaminergic and nonapeptidergic neuronal subdivisions are proposed to play a role for photoperiod control of endocrine activity.