In this research protein profiles of Popovo minnow muscle were presented and partially characterized for the first time.
Delminichthys ghetaldii (Steindachner, 1882) is an endemic fish species which can be found in springs and streams in fields
Ljubomir, Dabar and Fatnica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bacina lakes in Croatia. Most of the year minnows dwell in
underground water habitats of karst region in eastern Herzegovina. During the autumn and spring flooding of the surrounding
fields, Popovo minnows emerge from the underground waters in estavele and spawn in newly formed temporary lakes. In
order to obtain protein profiles from fish muscle, we used several extraction protocols and buffers. Sarcoplasmic proteins were
extracted from muscle tissue using Tris/EDTA and Tris/CaCl2 buffers. The results showed that the most abundant
sarcoplasmatic proteins had molecular weight of 40 and 34 kDa while high MW band appeared only in samples extracted by
Tris/EDTA. Re-extraction with 1% SDS resolved the presence of myofibrillar proteins and showed to be qualitatively and
quantitatively more efficient than the extraction by nonionic detergent Tween. Our results also indicate that protein extraction
with commercial SDS buffer from a biopsy muscle tissue gives good screening results and is applicable for field work. The
results are discussed in terms of the efficiency of different buffers in protein extraction from Popovo minnow muscle tissue.