The role of collagen in the quality and processing of fish.

Collagen in the muscles of fish constitutes the main component of the connective tissue membranes joining individual myotomes and is responsible for the integrity of the fillets. The content of collagen in fish muscles is from about 0.2 to 1.4% and in squid mantel about 2.6%. Fish and invertebrata collagens contain slightly more essential amino acids than intramuscular bovine connective tissue collagen. The invertebrata collagens are exceptionally rich in sugars linked mainly O-glycosidically to hydroxylysine residues. During maturation of fish the proportion of collagen to total protein in the muscles increases while the extent of crosslinking does not change significantly. The thermal properties of fish collagens depend significantly on the content of hydroxyproline and proline residues which in turn is correlated to the temperature of the habitat. Generally the shrinkage temperature of fish skin collagens is about 20 degrees C lower than that of mammalian hide collagens. In several species of fish the weakening of the connective tissues post mortem may lead to serious quality deterioration that manifests itself by disintegration of the fillets, especially under the strain of rough handling and of rigor mortis at ambient temperature. Thermal changes in collagen are the necessary result of the cooking of fish, squid, and minced fish products and contribute to the desirable texture of the meat. However, they may lead to serious losses during hot smoking due to a reduction in the breaking strength of the tissues when heating is conducted at high relative humidity. Because of the high viscosity of gelatinized collagen, it is not possible to concentrate the fish stickwaters, a proteinaceous byproduct of the fish meal industry, to more than 50% dry matter. Better knowledge of the contents and properties of fish collagens could be helpful in rationalizing many aspects of fish processing.

Occurrence of wax esters in the tissues of the orange roughly (Hoplostethus atlanticus).

The skin, skeleton and a fat-filled swim bladder of the orange roughly (Hoplostethus atlanticus) each contained greater than 20% lipid by wet weight which was almost entirely wax esters. These had carbon numbers of 34-40 consistent with the major fatty acid being 18:1 and the major fatty alcohols being 16:0, 18:1, 20:1 and 22:1. In contrast, the liver and the roe contained appreciable quantities of glycerolipids with 18:1 and 22:6 as the major fatty acids.

Hydrolysis of nucleoside phosphates: IV. The metal ion-nucleic base interaction in the Cu2+-promoted dephosphorylation of the 5'-di- and 5'-triphosphates of cytidine, inosine and guanosine, and their protection toward hydrolysis by coordination to Cu(2,2'-bipyridyl)2+.

The dephosphorylation of CTP, GTP, ITP, ATP, CDP, GDP, IDP and ADP was characterized by measuring the first-order rate constant (50 degrees; I = 0.1, NaClO4) in dependence on pH (2 to 10). Except with CTP and CDP, the reactions are significantly accelerated by Cu2+ and pass through pH optima. By computing the pH dependence of the distribution of the several species present in the nucleotide (NP) systems, it is shown that the most reactive species is Cu(NP). Cu(NP-H), where N(1) is deprotonated, is somewhat less reactive. In both types of complexes, a metal ion-nucleic base interaction, which is responsible for the increased reactivity, occurs, i.e., macrochelates involving the phosphate chains and the base moieties are formed. In accord herewith, CTP and CDP are rather stable as the coordination tendency of the cytosine moiety is small. Furthermore, in the ternary complexes Cu(2,2'-bipyridyl)(NP) and Cu-(2,2'-bipyridyl)(NP-H), where the formation of a macrochelate is inhibited, the nucleotides are protected. The structure-reactivity relationship is also evident with Cu(ITP)2- and Cu(IDP)- which exist only in part as macrochelates; hence, they are less reactive than for example Cu(ATP)2- or Cu(ADP)-. With the aid of the initial rate, vo = d[PO4(3-)]/dt, the rate laws of the ascending side of the pH optima were determined: vo = k[Cu(NP)]/[H+]. A reaction mechanism that includes an intermolecular attack of OH- at the terminal phosphate group is proposed. The descending side of the pH optimum is attributed to the formation of CU(NP)(OH) or Cu(NP-H)(OH), where the Cu2+-base interaction is insignificant. However, these hydroxy complexes are still somewhat faster dephosphorylated than the free nucleotides. This is attributed to an intramolecular attack of the bound OH- at the terminal phosphate group.