Abstract
Yolk processing pathways vary in the oocytes of benthophil and pelagophil teleosts. The present study investigated the yolk processing pattern in the oocytes of the fresh water catfish Clarias gariepinus at vitellogenic, maturation, and ovulated stages. This study concludes that during maturation stage, an electrophoretic shift in the major peptide band on Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) occurs due to a decrease in the size of the yolk protein. The PMF spectrum of corresponding peptides from vitellogenic and ovulated oocytes revealed a difference in the minor ions. A minor difference in the molecular weight of the corresponding peptides occurs due to a difference in their amino acid composition. Maximal activity of the proteases cathepsin D and cathepsin B was observed in the vitellogenic oocytes, thus confirming their role in the processing of yolk. A significant transient increase in the activity of cathepsin B in the mature oocytes also suggests its role in oocyte maturation.
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This work was supported in part by Research Grants SR/SO/AS-02/2006 received from Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi and in part by University of Delhi, Delhi.
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Neeta Sehgal conceptualized the study. Luni Sharma designed and conducted the experiments. Supriya Pipil and Varunendra Singh Rawat helped in the conduct of experiments and analysis of results. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Major findings
• Limited proteolysis of yolk proteins occur during oocyte maturation and ovulation in catfish, Clarias gariepinus
• Yolk proteolysis is accompanied with oocyte hydration.
• Cathepsin D is the major enzyme activated at the time of vitellogenesis, whereas cysteine protease cathepsin B plays a major role in the proteolysis during oocyte maturation.
• On MS-MS analysis, amino acid sequences of the peptides of yolk proteins showed similarity with amino acid sequences of VgA and VgB of various fish species.
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Sharma, L., Pipil, S., Rawat, V.S. et al. Role of cathepsins B and D in proteolysis of yolk in the catfish Clarias gariepinus. Fish Physiol Biochem 48, 749–765 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-022-01062-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-022-01062-8