Physiological and biochemical investigations on egg stickiness in common carp

The properties and behaviour of common carp, Cyprinus carpio, eggs in water and in ovarian fluids were studied at different temperature, pH, and with divalent cation concentrations. The biochemical composition of zona radiata externa (ZRE) was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively on amino acids, carbohydrates, uronic acid and sialic acids using chemical assays; on proteins using electrophoresis. Comparative biochemical studies were performed on the chub, Leuciscus cephalus, the vimba, Vimba vimba and the bleak, Chalcalburnus chalcoides. Eggs of common carp became sticky within seconds after mixing with water. Egg stickiness was not affected by water pH in a range of 6-9, by water temperatures between 4 and 30 degrees C, by divalent cations in concentrations < or =20 mmol/l, and by sodium chloride concentrations < or =50 mmol/l. Our investigations indicated that specific proteins of the cyprinid ovarian fluid are controlling (inhibiting) the initiation of egg stickiness: egg stickiness did not develop as long as the eggs were incubated in ovarian fluid. When however the ovarian fluid proteins were removed from the ovarian fluid by heat treatment, eggs developed stickiness within seconds, like they do in water. Biochemically, the ZRE consisted of nine types of proteins whereby four of them were glycoproteins. Glucose, fructose, galactose, and uronic acids were the major carbohydrates. Treatment of the egg membrane with invertase or amyloglucosidase did not affect the egg stickiness. Treatment with protease prevented stickiness. From these results and from additional histochemical results, we conclude that glycoproteins are likely to be the molecules responsible for stickiness.