Abstract

The importance of somatotropin as a growth promoting agent and immune-stimulator has long been recognized and its potential application in the fish farming industry has been an active research area. In the work reported here, we sought to improve the stability of a previously obtained truncated somatotropin by applying a 60 degrees C heat shock to the culture supernatant containing this molecule, and then compared its effects with and without heat shock on larval growth and immune functions. We observed that the treatment with heat shock at 60 degrees C enhanced protein stability, growth and innate immune functions in tilapia larvae. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.