Date of Award

2016

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.Sc.

Department

Biological Sciences

Keywords

Bloater, Coregonus hoyi, Cryopreservation, Exogenous hormone

Supervisor

Trevor E Pitcher

Supervisor

Chris C Wilson

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

Animals raised in captivity typically exhibit reproductive dysfunction of varying degrees ranging from diminished to absent reproduction. This observation holds true for the bloater (Coregonus hoyi); a deepwater cisco extirpated from Lake Ontario. Efforts to rear bloaters in captivity have met with complications including the absence of egg expression in females and asynchronous gamete expression between sexes. As such, I examined whether the injection of an exogenous hormone (LHRHa) could induce gamete expression in both males and females. Also, I began the development of a sperm cryopreservation protocol for bloaters to overcome the observed asynchronous gamete expression. The exogenous hormone injections were effective at inducing the gamete expression of females, more so than males. Additionally, although the cryopreservation freezing rates examined were successful for closely-related species, they were not appropriate for bloater spermatozoa. However, all four extenders examined are suitable for bloater spermatozoa as none of them were biologically toxic.

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