Endogenous testosterone in sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) during spawning migration

• Main Author: Grajcer, Dov
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2011
• Subjects: Salmon; Sockeye salmon
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/39831

Testosterone was isolated from both the "free" and conjugated steroid fractions obtained from plasma of spawned male and female sockeye salmon. Structure of the steroid was confirmed by several criteria including chemical transformation, a sulphuric acid chromogen and infrared spectra. Conjugation with glucuronic acid was established by use of saccharo-1:4-lactone, an inhibitor for β-glucuronidase. Position through which the conjugation occurs was not established. In other species conjugation is through the 17 β-hydroxy group rather than the theoretically possible 3-enol form in the ∆⁴⁻³ ketone. Testosterone was found in the conjugated but not in the "free" form in testes of migrating 0. nerka. Dehydroepiandrosterone and androsterone, the principal conjugated steroids in normal human plasma were not detected in several plasma samples tested. === Science, Faculty of === Zoology, Department of === Graduate