Effect of Pinealectomy of Coturnix Quail Reared Under Non-Stimulatory Photoperiods

Abstract

RECENT reviews by Cohen et al. (1964), Kitay and Altschule (1954), Relkin (1966) and Wurtman and Axelrod (1965) describe the progress in pineal research. Little work has been done to elucidate the function of the pineal gland in avian species. Shellabarger (1952 Shellabarger (1953) and Shellabarger and Breneman (1949) did some early work on pineal physiology in chickens. The function most often ascribed to the pineal is an inhibitory action on gonadal development in immature animals or in animals maintained under short daily periods of light. Hoffman and Reiter (1965a, b) recently showed that pinealectomy prevented the usual atrophy of the testes of adult hamsters kept under daily photoperiods consisting of one hour of light and 23 hours of darkness for a period of 4 weeks. Sham-operated controls showed complete testicular atrophy. Since the gonads of birds are known to atrophy in response to short day lengths, a study of the…