Morphometry and molecular characterisation of semen in four carp species

Abstract

Present study aimed to compare the morphometric features of sperm and seminal protein profile of four cyprinid species
viz. Labeo rohita (Hamilton, 1822), Labeo fimbriatus (Bloch, 1795), Cyprinus carpio (Linnaeus, 1758) and Puntius
carnaticus (Jerdon, 1849) in order to elucidate quantitative characteristics of sperm morphology and seminal protein profiles
within the family. Morphological studies revealed that carps have uniflagellate, acrosome less sperm with an ovoid head and
irregular shaped mid piece. Size of sperm in terms of length and breadth showed significant variation among the four species
studied. The sperm and seminal protein profiles of Puntius carnaticus differed from other three groups with the presence of
proteins with molecular mass of 15 and 49 kDa and absence of four proteins equivalent to molecular mass of 13, 20, 21 and
23 kDa. Two dimensional gel electrophoresis (2D-GE) analysis of sperm protein profile between Puntius carnaticus and
Labe orohita revealed presence of 237 protein spots.
Keywords: Cyprinid, Morphometry, Protein profiling, SDS-PAGE, Sperm