African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (13), pp. 1578-1581, 4 July 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Red blood cell morphology and plasma proteins electrophoresis of the European pond terrapin Emys orbicularis

Hosseinzadeh Colagar A. and N. Jafari

Department of Biology, Faculty of Basic Science, Mazandaran University, Babolsar, Iran.

Corresponding author. E-mail: acolagar@yahoo.com, or ahcolagar@umz.ac.ir.

Accepted 22 February, 2007

The European pond terrapin (Emys orbicularis) is a turtle found in southern and central Europe, West Asia and North Africa. In this study, we used juvenile E. orbicularis (females of 4 - 5 years old) which was captured from the different area of the Mazandaran province in April 2006. Blood was collected from the dorsal sinus into EDTA-coated vacutainer tubes. Plasma proteins were quantified and diluted to different ratios. SDS-PAGE was able to resolve 17 bands at minimum concentration of 51.0 mg/well which contain high and low band with molecular weight of 130.0- 132.0 and 20.0-23.0 kDa.

Key words: Emys orbicularis, turtles, erythrocytes, plasma proteins.