Pressure-induced retention of second polar body and suppression of first cleavage in rainbow trout: Production of all-triploids, all-tetraploids, and heterozygous and homozygous diploid gynogenetics

Retention of the second polar body in rainbow trout eggs was induced by 7000 psi early pressure shocks (applied 40 min after insemination) lasting 4 min. This resulted in all-triploid progenies after fertilization with functional sperm, and in high yields of heterozygous diploid gynogenetic fry after insemination with gamma-irradiated sperm. All-tetraploid progenies were produced by 7000 psi late pressure shocks (applied 5 h 50 min after insemination) lasting 4 min, if normal sperm had been used. With eggs activated by gamma-irradiated sperm, these shocks resulted in diploid gynogenetic embryos that were supposed to be homozygous at all their loci because obviously they result from the fusion of two mitotic products. This fact may explain their very low post-hatching survival, but the occurrence of residual chromosome fragments of paternal origin in their cells, demonstrated by an extensive karyological investigation, could also be responsible of the poor yields; such an observation suggests that we abandon the use of gamma irradiation for sperm inactivation. Finally, tetraploid hybrid embryos were produced with similar late pressure shocks applied after heterospecific inseminations.