Cytoarchitectonic study of the brain of a perciform species, the sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax). II. The diencephalon

Abstract

The cytoarchitecture of nuclei in the preoptic area, ventral thalamus, dorsal thalamus, epithalamus, hypothalamus, posterior tuberculum, synencephalon, and pretectum and the accessory optic nuclei was analyzed in a perciform teleost, the sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax, by using serial sections stained with cresyl‐violet. In general, the cytoarchitecture of the preoptic area, ventral and dorsal thalamus, epithalamus, and synencephalon resembles the histological pattern of other teleosts. However, the parvocellular preoptic nucleus of sea bass has been subdivided into parvocellular and anteroventral parts for morphological and functional reasons. The hypothalamus of the sea bass seems to differ slightly from that of other teleosts. An elaborated lateral tuberal nucleus, with five subdivisions, and three different nuclei around the lateral recesses were recognized. A medial nucleus of the inferior lobe, which has been reported previously in the perciform Sparus aurata, is also present in the hypothalamus of sea bass but has not been described before in another advanced teleost. The organization of the pretectum and the accessory optic system is essentially similar in sea bass to that described in other perciforms with highly developed vision. The migrated portion of the posterior tuberculum of sea bass appears to differ from this region of the diencephalon in other teleosts. In sea bass, three cell masses that have been described previously only in the perciform Sparus aurata have been assigned to the migrated area of the posterior tuberculum. This study will provide the neuroanatomical basis for future morpho‐functional studies to be done in the sea bass brain. J. Morphol. 247:229–251, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Molecular characterization and central distribution of the estradiol receptor alpha (ERα) in the sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

“…These areas were classified as dorsal (NRLd) and ventral (NRLv) parts of the lateral recess nucleus and posterior recess nucleus (NRP) according to the sea bass brain nomenclature (Cerdá-Reverter et al, 2001b). However, ERa expression was not confined to the caudal area of the sea bass hypothalamus since a profuse population of ERa-mRNA positive cells were also localized rostrally, in the anterior tuberal nucleus (NAT) as well as in dorsal (NLTd) and ventral (NLTv) parts of the lateral tuberal hypothalamic nucleus.…”

“…In addition, we newly report ERa expression in the dorsal and ventral nucleus of the periventricular pretectal nucleus (PPd, PPv) and paracommissural nucleus (NP) of the synencephalic area of the fish brain. Both PPd and PPv are targets for retinal inputs and project to the optic tectum (Cerdá-Reverter et al, 2001b). In the sea bass, NP and PPd are known to produce peptide Y (PY)-mRNA (Cerdá-Reverter et al, 2000a) and neuropeptide Y (NPY)-mRNA (Cerdá-Reverter et al, 2000b), respectively.…”

Phosphodiesterase inhibitor-dependent inverse agonism of agouti-related protein on melanocortin 4 receptor in sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

“…Total RNA was purified from fresh tissues (testis, ovary, intestine, fat, liver, white and red muscle, spleen, head kidney and kidney body proper, gill, dorsal skin, ventral skin, retina, heart, pituitary, and brain) and treated with RQ1-DNase (Promega). SuperScript II reverse transcriptase (Invitrogen) was used for cDNA synthesis by priming with oligo(dT) [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] (Invitrogen). The cDNA was subsequently used as template for touchdown PCR reactions with Taq DNA polymerase (Invitrogen) and specific primers.…”

Arginine-vasotocin expression and participation in reproduction and social behavior in males of the cichlid fish Cichlasoma dimerus

“…To avoid false positives caused by the immunohistochemistry itself, replacement of primary antisera with PBS was also performed. For the precise location of the AVT cell nuclei and their projections, we relied on the detailed atlases of two other Perciform species, Dicentrarchus labrax [8,9] and A. burtoni [12], and on previous studies of GnRH neurons localization in this species [40,41]. …”