Post Doc Project by Charlotte Hougård (University of Copenhagen)
Supervisors: Flemming Jessen (DIFRES) and Else K Hoffmann (University of Copenhagen)
The aim of this project is to transfer and utilise the knowledge of a
number of physiological processes from mammalian cells to fish muscle cells. In order to be able to do that we will first develop a permanent cell line of fish myocytes. Such a cell line does not exist. We want then to examine the correlation between lack of cellular oxygen in fish muscle, cellular acidification, increase of cellular Ca, change in cell volume and activation of phospholipases and protein kinases/phosphatases in the initial death phase of fish. These physiological processes cause or influence post mortem changes in fish, such as rigor mortis, changes in water holding ability, production of free fatty acids and break-down of proteins. The intention is to reveal the implications of these processes for fish processing and product quality.