The differences in metabolic activity of subitaneous and diapause eggs in Centropages tenuiremis

Abstract

The respiration and the isoenzymes of subitaneous and diapause eggs of Centropages tenuiremis in Xiamen waters of China were investigated. The results demonstrated that the average oxygen consumption of subitaneous eggs was lower than that of diapause eggs during the pre-diapause stage. The character of respiration in diapause eggs was as follows: the oxygen consumption quickly rose after spawning, and reached a maximal value, then gradually declined to a lower value that was maintained at a lower value (� 20% of the maximal value), the low value of oxygen consumption in diapause eggs was lower than that in subitaneous eggs at the same temperature (� 70%). The experimental results also indicated that among subitaneous, diapause and pre-diapause eggs of Centropages tenuiremis, the pre-diapause eggs were the most sensitive to temperature, the diapause eggs were the most insensitive; the sensitivity of subitaneous eggs to temperature was intermediate. The results also showed that there are obvious differences of isozyme patterns in malate dehydrogenase (MDH), sorbitol dehydrogenase (SDH), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and esterase (EST) between subitaneous eggs and pre-diapause eggs, and the characteristic enzyme bands for pre-diapause eggs were shown to be as follows: MDH 61 ,M DH 81 , SDH 41 , SDH 60 , SOD 97 , EST 48 , EST 59 and EST 61 ; for subitaneous eggs: MDH 59 , SDH 70 and EST 93 .