Preservation of gametes - Aquaculture

Preservation of gametes

In many species, the maturation of gonads in the two sexes is not synchronous. Males often show testicular recrudescence earlier during the season. Because of this, ripe males occur during the beginning of the season, when the females are not yet mature and ready for spawning. The reverse situation occurs during the end of the breeding season. Under such circumstances, it will be most advantageous to have a suitable means of preserving the gametes for artificial fertilization, when needed. Methods of gamete preservation would also help in the initiation of genetic selection programmes, by providing easy access to a reserve of genetic material of known and desired qualities.

Cryopreservation with liquid nitrogen, used widely in the preservation of cattle and live-stock sperm, has been tried for the preservation of a number of species of fish. Blaxter (1955) reported successful fertilization of fresh eggs with cryopreserved (-79°C) sperm of Clupeaharengus. Sections of ripe testis were stored in80 per cent sea water containing 12.5 per cent glycerol as a protector, and the mixture frozen quickly or slowly at 1°C/min to -30°C, then quickly to -79°C (using dry ice). Besides the sperm of rainbow trout, spermatozoa of the common carp, Chinese and Indian carps and grey mullet are among the cultivated species which have been subjected to cryopreservation, which consists of cooling and storing at subzero temperatures of liquid nitrogen (-196°C), using dimethyl sulphoxide, glycerine, ethyl glycol or other cryoprotectants and diluents (Harvey and Hoar, 1979). Attempts at cryopreservation of ova have not been as successful as for sperm. Zell (1978) reported the first successful cryopreservation of unfertilized ova and zygotes of salmonid fish. Ova frozen in liquid nitrogen at -20°C for five minutes proved to be fertile, and zygotes frozen at -50°C survived the exposure. All subsequent attempts have failed. While it is difficult to predict possible advances in cryopreservation of fish gametes, it would appear that the results so far indicate only the feasibility of short-term preservation of semen or the prolongation of embryonation.