Studies of fish zona pellucida by high-performance ion-exchange chromatography on agarose columns and free zone electrophoresis.

By either free zone electrophoresis or high-performance ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE agarose, zona pellucida from Baltic small herring (Clupea harengus L.) was separated into several fractions. These fractions had very similar protein compositions, since on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in sodium dodecyl sulphate they all gave the same pattern: chiefly one major and three minor bands corresponding to proteins with the following estimated molecular weights: 78 000, 96 000 (the major component), 115 000, and 125 000. It is likely that these proteins constitute the so-called supramolecular complexes of zona pellucida from Baltic small herring. Only one electrophoretic and one chromatographic fraction gave precipitin arcs on immunodiffusion with rabbit antiserum against zona pellucida from the fish Aristichthys nobilis (Richardson).