Age-related reproductive performance and transcriptome profiling of testis in male blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Catfish farming is the largest aquaculture industry in the U.S., where hybrid catfish produced by channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus ♀ × blue catfish, I. furcatus ♂, represent > 50% of the harvest. Previous studies indicated a high degree of variation in reproductive performance among individuals. Therefore, it is crucial to establish a connection between paternal age and reproductive success. This study investigated the reproduction of 103 blue catfish males aged 2 to 10 years. Morphometric data were collected, and blood was drawn to quantify testosterone (T), 11-ketotestosterone (11-KT), osmolality, and ions. Histological images of the testis assessed stages of spermatogenesis, and sperm were activated for kinematic analysis. The testis transcriptome was profiled across distinct ages, 2, 4, 7, and 9. For fish aged 2 to 10 years, those over 7 years had the largest size, with a rapid increase until age 7 and a slight increase afterwards. Absolute sperm production was affected by age, with the highest levels observed at age 6, followed by a decreasing trend. T and 11-KT did not increase after age 6, while sperm kinematics were not impacted by age. Transcriptomics identified 5220 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in all comparisons. The most DEGs were identified at age 7 with 2261 down-regulated and 1824 up-regulated genes. Functional enrichment revealed significant changes in axoneme, motile cilium, and sperm flagellum at age 7. In contrast, immune processes were increased in the testis at age 9 with viral and bacterial defense responses. Results suggest that farmers should maintain consistent supplies of age 6 and 7 males to increase hatchery efficiency.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".