Survival capacity of haploid-diploid goldfish chimeras

Abstract

In teleosts, haploidy has been considered to be inviable due to the expression of abnormalities during embryogenesis, but the recent report of live haploid-diploid mosaic fish suggests the probable improvement of survival capacity by adding diploid cells or tissues to haploid embryos. In order to examine such possibilities, two types of haploid-diploid goldfish chimeric embryos were produced by transplantation of blastoderm between the normally fertilized diploid and the artificially induced gynogenetic haploid: the haploid-base chimera with the diploid upper half on the haploid lower half blastoderm and the diploid-base chimera with the haploid upper half on the diploid lower half blastoderm. Fluorescent detection of FITC-labeled cells, subsequent histochemical detection of biotin-labeled haploid cells and flow-cytometrical detection of both haploid and diploid cells proved successful induction of the haploid-diploid chimera. Both types of chimeric embryos demonstrated much better survival capacity than pure haploid individuals, but all the haploid-base chimeras died before 10 days after fertilization due to the expression of edema, whereas several diploid-base chimeras survived until 16 months after fertilization when the experiment was ended. This concluded diploid-base chimeras became viable by adding diploid cells to haploid embryos. However, the proportion of transplanted haploid cells was reduced and the distribution of these cells was limited to certain organs because survivors exhibited haploid cells only in brain, eye and/or skin. These results suggest possible elimination of haploid cells from the organs originated from ectoderm.