Untitled - CNR

Marine research at CNRFigure 1: Study area with sampling sites.Table 1: Primer pair sequences, amplicon size and annealing temperatures used for vitellogeninexpression analysis.2.2 Sampling2.3 Biochemical and catalyticassaysRed mullets, Mullus barbatus (mean LT± SD) were collected by trawl surveysin June 2007 and January 2008 at 50 mdepth. After sexing macroscopically, totallength (TL, cm) and body weight (BW, g)of males were recorded. Liver and brainwere frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at-80 °C, until laboratory analysis. Gonadswere fixed for 24 h in Bouin’s solution andstored in 70° ethanol for subsequent histologicalanalysis.Cytosolic and microsomial fractionswere prepared according to Corsi et al.[34]. Liver microsomal 7-ethoxyresorufin-O- deethylase (EROD) activities weremeasured in duplicate according to thespectofluorimetric assays of Burke andMayer [35] using a Perkin-Elmer LS50Bluminescence spectrofluorimeter. UDPglucuronosyltransferaseactivity was performedaccording to Aitio[36] modifiedby Collier et al. [37]. The glutathione S-transferase activity was measured by the2085