Decreased, Triiodothyronine (T3) leads to Reduced, Anterior swim bladder inflation

Thyroid hormones are known to be involved in development, especially in metamorphosis in amphibians and in embryonic-to-larval transition and larval-to-juvenile transition, including anterior chamber inflation in fish. Reduced T3 levels prohibit local TH action in the target tissues. Since swim bladder development and/or inflation is regulated by thyroid hormones, this results in impaired anterior chamber inflation.

Stinckens et al. (2020, supplementary information) established a very convincing linear quantitative relationship between reduced T3 levels and reduced anterior chamber volume (measured as surface in 2D images) in 32 day old zebrafish across three compound exposures. This includes methimazole and propylthiouracil, two inhibitors of TH synthesis on the one hand, and iopanoic acid, a deiodinase inhibitor, on the other hand.

Taxonomic: Teleost fish can be divided in two groups according to swim bladder morphology: physoclistous (e.g., yellow perch, sea bass, striped bass, medaka) and physostomous (e.g., zebrafish and fathead minnow). Physostomous fish retain a duct between the digestive tract and the swim bladder during adulthood allowing them to gulp air at the surface to fill the swim bladder. In contrast, in physoclistous fish, once initial inflation by gulping atmospheric air at the water surface has occurred, the swim bladder is closed off from the digestive tract and swim bladder volume is regulated by gas secretion into the swim bladder (Woolley and Qin, 2010). The evidence for impaired inflation of the anterior chamber of the swim bladder currently comes from work on zebrafish and fathead minnow (Stinckens et al., 2016; Nelson et al., 2016; Cavallin et al., 2017; Godfrey et al., 2017; Stinckens et al., 2020). While zebrafish and fathead minnows are physostomous fish with a two-chambered swim bladder, the Japanese rice fish or medaka (Oryzias latipes) is a physoclistous fish with a single chambered swim bladder that inflates during early development. This KER is not applicable to such fish species. Therefore, the current key event is plausibly applicable to physostomous fish in general.

Life stage: The anterior chamber inflates during a specific developmental time frame. In zebrafish, the anterior chamber inflates around 21 days post fertilization (dpf) which is during the larval stage. In the fathead minnow, the anterior chamber inflates around 14 dpf, also during the larval stage. Therefore this KER is only applicable to the larval life stage.

Sex: This KER plausibly applicable to both sexes. Sex differences are not often investigated in tests using early life stages of fish. For zebrafish and fathead minnow, it is currently unclear whether sex-related differences are important in determining the magnitude of the changes in this KER. Different fish species have different sex determination and differentiation strategies. Zebrafish do not have identifiable heteromorphic sex chromosomes and sex is determined by multiple genes and influenced by the environment (Nagabhushana and Mishra, 2016). Zebrafish are undifferentiated gonochorists since both sexes initially develop an immature ovary (Maack and Segner, 2003). Immature ovary development progresses until approximately the onset of the third week. Later, in female fish immature ovaries continue to develop further, while male fish undergo transformation of ovaries into testes. Final transformation into testes varies among male individuals, however finishes usually around 6 weeks post fertilization. Since the anterior chamber inflates around 21 days post fertilization in zebrafish, sex differences are expected to play a minor role. Fathead minnow gonad differentiation also occurs during larval development. Fathead minnows utilize a XY sex determination strategy and markers can be used to genotype sex in life stages where the sex is not yet clearly defined morphologically (Olmstead et al., 2011). Ovarian differentiation starts at 10 dph followed by rapid development (Van Aerle et al., 2004). At 25 dph germ cells of all stages up to the primary oocytes stage were present and at 120 dph, vitellogenic oocytes were present. The germ cells (spermatogonia) of the developing testes only entered meiosis around 90–120 dph. Mature testes with spermatozoa are present around 150 dph. Since the anterior chamber inflates around 14 days post fertilization (9 dph) in fathead minnows, sex differences are expected to play a minor role in the current KER.