Protein Profile Expression of Clarias gariepinus, Heterobranchus bidorsalis and their Reciprocal Hybrids in South-West Nigeria

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Proper genetic characterization would help in the selection of suitable strains for aquaculture that could lead to production of varieties of fishes to alleviate the problem of short supply of fast growing quality fish seeds. The study was aimed at analyzing the muscle protein profiles of Clarias gariepinus, Heterobranchus bidorsalis and their reciprocal hybrids. Sixteen juveniles fish samples (comprising four samples from each mating combinations) artificially propagated and reared for sixteen weeks were analyzed electrophoreti cally. The separation of the different polypeptides of C. gariepinus, H. bidorsalis and their reciprocal hybrid were carried out using 12% Sodium dodecyl, sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (JD SDS-PAGE). The relative concentration of individual protein bands were analyzed using Total LabTM ID software. The individual protein bands in the electrophoregram were identified in relation to their molecular weights. The gel images obtained after electrophoresis were scored and subjected to cluster analysis. The lst, 2nd, 4th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and l1th bands were detected across all mating combinations. The 5th band with molecular weight (78.58 distinguishes C. gariepinus from H. bidorsalis while the 6th band with molecular weight (54.41 KDa) distincts the reciprocal hybrid Clariabranchus from Heteroclarias. The 7th and 12th bands distinguished the pure breeds from the hybrids. The 7th band was present in both hybrids-Clariabranchus (49.50 KDa) and Heteroclarias (49.77 KDa) species but absent in the pure breeds while 12th was present in the pure breeds-C. gariepinus (19.92 KDa) and H. bidorsalis (20.29 KDa) but absent in the hybrids. The cluster analysis shows a high level of genetic similarity among the mating combinations which affirms the already established monophylogenetic relatedness among the species.