Evaluation of oxidative DNA damage promoted by storage in sperm from sex-reversed rainbow trout

Short-term storage and cryopreservation of sperm are two common procedures in aquaculture, used for routine practices in artificial insemination reproduction and gene banking, respectively. Nevertheless, both procedures cause injuries affecting sperm motility, viability, cell structure and DNA stability, which diminish reproductive success. DNA modification is considered extremely important, especially when sperm storage is carried out with gene banking purposes. DNA damage caused by sperm storage is not well characterized and previous studies have reported simple and double strand breaks that have been attributed to oxidative events promoted by the generation of free radicals during storage. The objective of this study was to reveal DNA fragmentation and to explore the presence of oxidized bases that could be produced by oxidative events during short-term storage and cryopreservation in sex-reversed rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss) spermatozoa. Sperm from six males was analyzed separately. Different aliquots of the samples were stored 2 h (fresh) or 5 days at 4 °C or were cryopreserved. Then spermatozoa were analyzed using the Comet assay, as well as combining this method with digestion with two endonucleases from Escherichia coli (Endonuclease III, that cut in oxidized cytosines, and FPG, cutting in oxidized guanosines). Both storage procedures yielded DNA fragmentation, but only short-term storage oxidative events were clearly detected, showing that oxidative processes affect guanosines rather than cytosines. Cryopreservation increases DNA fragmentation but the presence of oxidized bases was not noticed, suggesting that mechanisms other than oxidative stress could be involved in DNA fragmentation promoted by freezing.