Abstract
To evaluate the importance of the quantitative composition of vitellogenin (Vtg)‐derived egg yolk proteins during initial events of Dentex dentex life, viable eggs were obtained from captive broodstocks. Viability parameters (VPs; egg buoyancy (FR), hatching rate (HR), and larval survival rate (SR) at 0, 3, and 5 days posthatch (dph)) were determined for 70 egg batches. Vtg‐derived yolk proteins were purified from the eggs using cation‐exchange chromatography, separated and detected by SDS‐PAGE, identified and characterized using mass spectrometry, quantified using image densitometry, and finally correlated to VPs. The 77.97, 57.22, 22.22, 17.69 and 16.95 kDa proteins were identified as proteolytic products resulted from both VtgA and B. All the Vtg‐derived yolk proteins were significantly correlated to VPs with a maximum explanatory effect (R^2^) of 0.634. The concentration of the 57.22 kDa protein was significantly correlated with FR, the 77.97, 57.22, 22.22, 17.69 and 16.95 kDa proteins with HR and SR at 0 dph, the 22.22, 17.69 and 16.95 kDa proteins with SR at 3 and 5 dph. The results showed the importance of yolk protein content in the egg for embryogenesis and early larval development and indicated its potential use to predict egg quality in teleosts. J. Exp. Zool. 311A:504–520, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.