Morphometry and molecular characterisation of semen in four carp species

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