Is the expression of tissue-degrading enzymes in the skeletal muscle of spiny dogfish correlated to capture stress?

• Main Author: Faircloth, Elizabeth
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository 2017
• Subjects: Gelatin Zymography; Squalus acanthias; Dogfish; Aquaculture and Fisheries; Biology; Structural Biology; spiny dogfish
• Online Access: https://scholars.unh.edu/urc/394; https://scholars.unh.edu/context/urc/article/1398/viewcontent/URC_Poster_draft_5_Faircloth.pdf

An evolutionary-conserved family of enzymes known as the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play major roles in tissue remodeling. While much is known about MMPs in mammalian vertebrates, their presence and function in non-mammalian vertebrates is not well studied. In teleosts, MMPs have been shown to degrade skeletal muscle and thus, may affect the quality of fillet at market. Standard commercial fishing practices can be stressful, which could also adversely affect fillet quality. Interestingly we observed that MMPs are expressed in skeletal muscle of the spiny dogfish, Squalus acanthias. Therefore, we hypothesized that skeletal muscle MMP expression in dogfish is correlated to capture method. Skeletal muscles were obtained from dogfish caught under high stress (24-hr tow) and low stress (hook and line) conditions. Dogfish skeletal muscle proteins were extracted and subjected to gelatin zymography to identify MMPs. Among them, a few were deferentially expressed in dogfish caught using high and low stress methods. These results may have implications for commercial fishing practices that ultimately provide a high-quality product to consumers.