Distribution of selenium binding proteins in liver from two species of penguins from Bouvetøya

• Published in: Polar Research
• Main Authors: Norheim, G., Mehlum, F., Bech, C., Moksnes, M.T.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Norwegian Polar Institute 1991
• Subjects: Bouvetøya; Antarc*; Antarctica; Chinstrap penguin; Eudyptes chrysolophus; Macaroni penguin; Polar Research; Pygoscelis antarctica
• Online Access: https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2354; https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v9i1.6783

Chinstrap penguin Pygoscelis antarctica and macaroni penguin Eudyptes chrysolophus were collected at Bouvettfya in the south Atlantic. The average hepatic selenium levels for the two species were 6.6 ± 2.9 and 23.6 ± 3.4 ng/g wet weight (P < 0.001), respectively. The total hepatic glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity in the two species was 629 ± 58 and 838 ± 88 u.kat/kg (P < 0.001), respectively. The average selenium dependent GSH-Px activity was 96 ± 3.2% of the total activity. All selenium was present in the cytosol. The selenium binding compounds were separated on Sephadex G-75 into three fractions, a high molecular weight fraction, a metallothionein fraction, and a third non-protein selenium containing fraction. There seems to be an agreement between the amount of selenium recovered in the first fraction and the GSH-Px activity. In chinstrap and macaroni penguins, the percentage of hepatic selenium recovered in the third non-protein fraction was 83 ± 2.6 and 94 ± 1.1% (P < 0.001), respectively.