SEXUAL PHASES IN THE AMERICAN OYSTER (OSTREA VIRGINICA)
Open Access
- 1 December 1932
- journal article
- research article
- Published by University of Chicago Press in The Biological Bulletin
- Vol. 63 (3) , 419-441
- https://doi.org/10.2307/1537344
Abstract
Although this species is seasonally dioecious, the primary gonads are bisexual, the peripheral layer of cells consisting mainly of ovocytes, with spermatogenic cells adjacent to the lumens. In 3-30% of these individuals, varying with the locality, the primary gonad is transformed into an ovary; all the other individuals first function as [male] [male] in the localities investigated, although they still retain more or less numerous ovocytes. After spawning, the gonads are still bisexual, the residual cells forming the basis of subsequent changes in the sexual phase. Since the relatively few individuals which function as [female] [female] during their first spawning season have a mean size much greater than that of the more numerous [male] [male], and since the proportion of [female] [female] is fully 10 times as great where the environmental conditions, as indicated by rate of growth, are the most favorable, it is suggested that nutrition is an important factor in the differentiation of the sexual phase.This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- Physiology of Embryonic Sex DifferentiationThe American Naturalist, 1932
- A Method for Ripening Haematoxylin Solutions RapidlyScience, 1931
- The Dominant Species of OstreaNature, 1928