Fish sexual characteristic determination using peptide hormones
AssigneeMote Marine Laboratory
InventorsDana L. Wetzel, John E. Reynolds, William E. Roudebush
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Fish sexual characteristics are determined by measuring the concentration in fish serum, plasma or whole blood of one or more peptide hormones of the transforming growth factor-beta superfamily (TGF-βsuperfamily). The disclosed method and an accompanying field test kit may be used in sturgeon aquaculture to cull out young male fish so that increased time and resources may be devoted to the further rearing of female fish for caviar production. The method and test kit may also be used for wild fish life history studies.
Claims20
A field test kit for fish sexual characteristic determination, comprising a support bearing a blood, serum or plasma sample from a fish, a rapid-acting capture antibody and a rapid-developing reporter antibody or other indicator that provides a colorimetric or other indication of peptide hormone concentration in less than three minutes after exposure of the support to such fish blood, serum or plasma sample, and with 90% or greater accuracy when compared to histologically determined data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.