Nucleic Acids and Protamine in Salmon Testes

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the presence of nucleic acids and protamine in Salmon testes. It highlights the approach of the centenaries of the discoveries of deoxyribonucleic acid (nuclein) and of protamine. The subsequent relative lack of research on the biochemistry of the salmon testes is in all probability because of the limited geographic distribution of salmonoid fish together with the small fraction of the year when fish are available in the appropriate physiological condition. The chapter presents information on salmon sperm nucleic acids and protarnine pertinent to current interests in molecular biology. Among areas of considerable interest are the replication of DNA during spermatogenesis and the role of nucleases in replication, together with the studies of possible biochemical differences between the mitotic and meiotic (reduction) divisions. The small size and unusual composition of protamine invite a detailed study of its mechanism of biosynthesis, particularly whether the late “turning-on” of the synthesis is controlled at the transcriptional or translational level. Additionally, the biochemistry of the action of protein and steroid hormones can be studied. The spermatozoon itself offers a unique opportunity to study a free-living, highly differentiated cell from a higher organism, possessing characteristic organelles, but with nuclear genes in an inactive state until the events of fertilization reactivate the male genetic material.