Godwin, J., D. Crews, R.R. Warner. (1996) Behavioral sex change in the absence of gonads in a coral reef fish.
Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B 263 (1377): 1683-1688.
It is an axiom of vertebrate behavioural endocrinology that full
expression of a male behavioural phenotype depends on testicular influences
during development, in adulthood, or both. Sex change in fishes challenges
this necessity: behavioural changes are often rapid and greatly precede
gonadal changes. However, steroid hormones can have fast actions on the
nervous system, so gonadal influences on behavioural sex change cannot
be excluded based solely on the speed of these changes. We report that
surgical gonad removal does not prevent or discernibly alter female-to-male
behavioural sex change in a protogynous coral reef fish. Male behaviour
assumption is instead purely dependent on attaining social dominance. This
is the first example of a vertebrate fully expressing a male behavioural
phenotype without current or prior exposure to a functioning testis.