Preliminary study of the fatty acid profile of fertile and infertile eggs of wild Caiman latirostris.

LEIVA, P.M.; LABAQUE MC; SIMONCINI M; FERNANDEZ M; PIÑA C

Lake Charles

Congreso; 2014. XXIII Working Meeting CSG-UICN; 2014

CSG-UICN

The lipids are the major nutritive components of eggs of reptiles, and the fatty acids derived from the yolk lipids are the main energy development. Among fatty acids, the essential polyinsaturated fatty acids are vital for the embryo development and, consequently, the lack of some of these components compromises the hatching success. We compared the total fatty acid profile in fertile and infertile eggs of C. latirostris. We analysis the fatty acids composition in yolk of eggs colected (9 infertile and 11 fertile egg) using the technique of methyl esters and, then analyzing them by GCMS. The results showed that fertile eggs had a higher percentage of oleic (C18:1) and total monosaturated fatty acids and a lower percentage of palmitic (C16:0), heptadecenoic acid (17:1), linoleic (18:2), and total saturated fatty acids, respect to infertile eggs. The oleic fatty acids (C18:1) belong the ones of the three families of unsatureted fatty acids which have greater biological importance for embrionic development in oviparous species, because they are precursors of polyinsaturated fatty acids of long chain. Thus it is probably that differences in the fatty acid composition of the yolk could be associated with fertility and hatching success of eggs. In this context, it would be interesting to evaluate in future studies whether changes in the chemical composition of fertile eggs may be associated with an increased hatching success of eggs ans/or survival of offspring.