Fig. 7

a Follicle images of each stage of oocytes based on size and shape. b A representative image of an ovary of 24-d starved dbh^+/− shows two major populations of oocytes of stage IV (dark and big, yellow circle) and stage I (transparent and small). Similar images were observed from 9 samples. c Images of three different ovaries of 24-d starved dbh^−/−. In contrast to dbh^+/−, most oocytes are stage II or III (intermediate size, red circle). Similar images were observed from 14 samples. d Upper panel: a representative image of an ovary of 24-d starved dbh^+/− stained with neutral red. Stage I oocytes are most abundant (arrowheads). Oocytes in each stage of II, II* (late stage II), and IV are easily visible. Lower panel: an image of the whole ovary. e A representative image of an ovary of 32-d starved dbh^−/−. Upper panel: neutral-red stained image. Compared to dbh^+/−, oocytes of later stages (e.g., stages II and III) are abundant. Lower panel: an image of the whole ovary. b–e Scale bar = 200 μm. f The percent of oocytes at stage II (S2), late stage II (LS2), and stage III (S3) in dbh^+/− (n = 8 sections from three independent fish) and dbh^−/− (n = 10 sections from four independent fish). The stage III oocytes were only observed in dbh^−/−. Two-sided t-test: p = 3.1 × 10⁻⁹ between dbh^+/− vs. dbh^−/− in stage II; p = 0.04 in late stage II; p = 0.0004 for stage III. g The sum of stage II, late stage II, and stage III oocytes presented in f. Two-sided t-test: p = 2.3 × 10⁻¹¹. f–g Boxplots show the median, mean (X), interquartile range (IQR). The upper whisker: the maxima smaller than 1.5 times IQR plus the third quartile, the lower whisker: the minima larger than 1.5 times IQR minus the first quartile. h Ovaries of four different dbh^+/− females after 45 days of starvation contain only stage I oocytes. Ovaries of four other females showed similar phenotype. Scale bar = 100 μm. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.