ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Amphib. Reptile Sci.
Sec. Conservation
Volume 3 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/famrs.2025.1615858
This article is part of the Research TopicReproductive Physiology, Reproductive Technologies, and Biobanking to Assist Amphibian and Reptile ConservationView all 6 articles
Hormonal induction of spermiation in the common eastern froglet: testing alternative routes of hormone administration
Provisionally accepted
- School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
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Application of hormone therapies to amphibians has increased substantially in recent years, though protocol development has predominantly focussed on moderate-to large-bodied species, with fewer examples of application to small-or micro-bodied amphibians. The development of alternative methods of hormone administration that circumvent the need for animal injection stand to increase the diversity of species to benefit from hormone therapy, particularly species of smaller body size. The aim of the present study was to quantify the efficacy of different routes of hormone administration of gonadotropin releasing-hormone agonist (GnRHa) on spermiation in the common eastern froglet, Crinia signifera. Males were assigned to one of four experimental treatments; intranasal application, hormone injection, hormone bath or no hormone, and sperm-release was quantified (males spermiating, total sperm, sperm concentration and sperm viability) at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12-hours. Sperm-release was highest in the hormone injection and hormone bath treatments, both resulting in 88% of males spermiating, and the highest mean total number and concentration of sperm. Intranasal application resulted in poor sperm-release, with only 25% of males spermiating, and very low total sperm and sperm concentration, statistically similar to the aspermic no-hormone treatment group. Sperm viability remained above 86% and did not differ significantly among treatments. Overall, we describe successful protocols for the hormonal induction of sperm-release in C. signifera. Our findings add to a growing body of evidence that topical hormone application offers a viable alternative to injection for amphibians, providing an effective pathway for the increased application of hormone therapies to small-bodied amphibian species.
Keywords: amphibian, gamete release, Hormone therapy (HT), Spermiation induction, Topical, reproductive technologies, anuran
Received: 22 Apr 2025; Accepted: 11 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Anastas, Byrne and Silla. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Aimee J. Silla, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
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