{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,25]],"date-time":"2026-01-25T00:59:25Z","timestamp":1769302765093,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]],"date-time":"2026-01-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1769040000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012166","name":"National Key R&D Program of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["2022YFD2400102"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2022YFD2400102"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012166","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["32293254"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32293254"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["32202912"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32202912"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Youth Science and Technology Talents Lifting Project of Hunan Province","award":["2023TJ-Z21"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023TJ-Z21"]}]},{"name":"Key Research and Development Program of Hunan Province","award":["2024JK2144"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024JK2144"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Allotetraploid fish produced by distant hybridization are valuable germplasm for the mass production of sterile triploids. The allotetraploid crucian\u2013carp hybrid (4nAT, 4n = 200) is derived from the intergeneric cross between a female red crucian carp (Carassius auratus red var., 2n = 100) and a male common carp (Cyprinus carpio L., 2n = 100). However, after 33 successive generations, this lineage faces a critical bottleneck in maintaining male fertility. The present study aimed to develop new biomarkers for testicular development and characterize the associated functional gene expression profile in 4nAT. Following whole-genome resequencing and selection signature analysis of 15 male 4nAT individuals from each of the high-development group (HDG) and low-development group (LDG), ZSWIM7 (Zinc Finger SWIM-Type Containing 7), a gene implicated in reproductive development, was selected as a candidate for further fertility association studies. Seven SNPs were screened in the coding region of ZSWIM7 of 70 4nAT males; among these, SNP3 (c.23T\/C) exhibited a significant correlation between genotypes and testicular development: individuals with the CT genotype showed a higher gonadosomatic index (1.17 \u00b1 0.68 vs. 0.65 \u00b1 0.50) and greater counts of mature spermatozoa (2537.67 \u00b1 283.95 vs. 341.56 \u00b1 121.66) compared to those with the TT genotype. Further quantitative PCR and immunofluorescence assays demonstrated that ZSWIM7 was highly expressed in the testis and specifically localized to the nuclei of early meiotic primary spermatocytes. Collectively, these results establish ZSWIM7 as a promising biomarker for 4nAT testicular development, offering a potential molecular tool for maintaining male fertility in allotetraploid fish breeding.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani16020352","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,23]],"date-time":"2026-01-23T14:58:40Z","timestamp":1769180320000},"page":"352","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Polymorphisms and Expression Characteristics of the ZSWIM7 Gene Are Associated with the Fertility of Male Allotetraploid of Red Crucian Carp \u00d7 Common Carp"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Tao","family":"Dai","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Research Center of Polyploid Fish Reproduction and Breeding of the State Education Ministry, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-8842-4636","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Minglin","family":"Dong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Research Center of Polyploid Fish Reproduction and Breeding of the State Education Ministry, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Siyang","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Research Center of Polyploid Fish Reproduction and Breeding of the State Education Ministry, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Weiling","family":"Qin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Research Center of Polyploid Fish Reproduction and Breeding of the State Education Ministry, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7784-0214","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Conghui","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Research Center of Polyploid Fish Reproduction and Breeding of the State Education Ministry, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yi","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Research Center of Polyploid Fish Reproduction and Breeding of the State Education Ministry, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"545","DOI":"10.1017\/S0967199417000442","article-title":"Reproduction biotechnologies in germplasm banking of livestock species: A review","volume":"25","author":"Morrell","year":"2017","journal-title":"Zygote"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Comizzoli, P., Brown, J.L., and Holt, W.V. 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