Preliminary Isolation of A Hormone Stimulating Oocyte Development from Thoracic Ganglion of the Prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii

The extracts of thoracic ganglion from adult Macrobrachium rosenbergii were chromatographed on a Sephadex G-50 column, the resulting second peak was further isolated by HPLC, and 9 fractions were obtained. Among the fractions only the first fraction significantly increased the oocyte diameter in vitro of the stage ovary in M. rosenbergii. The increasing effects were depended on the protein concentration of the fraction for culture. The molecular weight of the substance in the fraction 1 was about 1.3kDa.The results show that the thoracic ganglion of M. rosenbergii can secrete peptide hormone which stimulates the oocyte development of the prawn.