Relationship between biochemical constituents of fish semen and fertility: the effect of short-term storage

Abstract

Spermatozoa and seminal plasma obtained from rainbow trout and whitefish were analyzed in respect to their aspartate aminotransferase (AspAT) and alkaline phosphatase activities. In particular, the experiments characterized AspAT optimum pH, optimization of assay conditions and action of coenzyme, pyridoxal 5-phosphate (vitamin B6). The effect of short-term semen storage at 0°C on biochemical indicators and fertilization rate was examined in both species. The concentrations of reduced and oxidized ascorbic acid in seminal plasma of both species were several folds higher than in spermatozoa and blood plasma of fish. Highly significant correlations were found for both species between AspAT activity (sperm or seminal plasma) and fertilization rate (% of eyed-stage or hatched embryos). For rainbow trout, highly significant correlations were found between sperm concentration, motility and fertilization rate. These results suggest that several biochemical indicators of seminal plasma can be used as measures of sperm quality of fish. Some common biochemical parameters for fish and mammal's semen provide evidence for using fish sperm as a model in biomedical research.

Fertilizing ability of short-term preserved spermatozoa Abant trout (Salmo trutta abanticus T, 1954)

“…Our results confirmed the data of Munkittrick and Moccia (29) and Ciereszko and Dabrowski (14) who found a correlation between motility rate and fertilization capacity for the trout sperm using subjective estimation methods for motility determination. Magyary et al (26) concluded a strong, positive correlation of frozen-thawed carp spermatozoa motility and fertility at 1-1.5x10 5 :1 spermatozoa/egg ratio.…”

Short-term cold storage of sperm from six neotropical characiformes fishes

“…All sperm used in this study had an initial motility rate of at least 80% (see Fig. 1 (Billard, 1981;Billard and Legendre, 1982;Hara et al, 1982;Stoss and Refstie, 1983;Ciereszko and Dabrowski, 1994;Dilauro et al, 1994;Bencic et al, 2000;Jenkins-Keeran et al, 2001), as compared to the results reported here for Neotropical fishes. The high percentages of P. marggravii eggs that were fertilised with 8 h stored sperm, comparable to those obtained with fresh sperm under routine hatchery conditions (Sato et al, 1996), confirmed the applicability of the cooling preservation technique described herein.…”

“…Cold storage is a simple technique that allows sperm to be available at various time intervals, for the fertilisation of eggs produced by hormone-induced females, which ensures greater productivity in the reproductive process. By facilitating the use of sperm from a larger number of males per female, it can help improve the genetic quality of the resulting offspring, in addition to allowing the characteristics of the sperm to be studied (Ciereszko and Dabrowski, 1994). An additional advantage is the ease of transport in appropriate containers (Henderson and Dewar, 1959).…”

Relationship Between Spermatozoa Motility, Egg Size, Fecundity and Fertilization Success in Salmo trutta abanticus

“…Our results confirmed the data of Munkittrick and Moccia (1987) and of Ciereszko and Dabrowski (1994) who found a correlation between motility rate and fertilization capacity for the rainbow trout sperm using subjective estimation methods for motility determination. Magyary et al (1996) concluded a strong, positive correlation (r=0.85) of frozen/thawed carp spermatozoa motility and fertility at 1x10 5 -1.5x10 5 :1 spermatozoa/egg ratio.…”