Ž . Aquaculture 170 1999 323–336 ž Influence of broodstock gilthead seabream Sparus / aurata L. dietary fatty acids on egg quality and egg fatty acid composition throughout the spawning season Eduardo Almansa b ,M a . Jose Perez a , Juana Rosa Cejas b , ´ ´ Pilar Badıa a , Jose Enrique Villamandos b , Antonio Lorenzo a, ) ´ ´ a Departamento de Biologıa Animal, Facultad de Biologıa, UniÕersidad de La Laguna, 38206 Tenerife, Spain ´ ´ b Centro Oceanografico de Canarias, Instituto Espanol de Oceanografıa, Crta. San Andres s r n, 38120 Sta. ´ ˜ ´ ´ Cruz de Tenerife, Spain Accepted 13 October 1998 Abstract The influence of broodstock dietary lipids on egg quality and egg fatty acid composition throughout the spawning season of gilthead seabream was investigated. For this purpose, the fish Ž . were fed for 7 months either a control diet diet C or a diet deficient in n y3 highly unsaturated Ž . Ž . Ž . Ž fatty acids n y3 HUFA but rich in both oleic 18:1 n y9 and linolenic 18:3 n y3 acids diet . D . Eggs spawned by both groups of fish were sampled at the beginning, middle and end of the Ž . Ž . spawning season and the fatty acid composition of their neutral NL and polar lipids PL determined. In the early season, percentages of fertilized and hatched eggs, relative proportions of NL and PL as well as their fatty acid compositions, were not affected by the lipid composition of the broodstock diet. However, the eggs spawned during the middle and late seasons showed marked differences among the two groups of fish, clearly reflecting the influence of dietary fatty acids. This influence was more evident in the neutral lipid fraction than in the polar lipids. No Ž correlation was found between the number of buoyant eggs and eicosapentaenoic 20:5n y3, . Ž . EPA , docosahexaenoic 22:6 n y3, DHA fatty acids or total n y3 HUFA contents in egg phospholipids. However, a negative correlation was detected when percentages of fertilized eggs were compared with the levels of 18:1 n y9, 18:3 n y3 and with the ratio 18:1 n y9rn y3 HUFA present in the phospholipids. Our results indicate the importance of maintaining not only the level of n y3 HUFA in egg membrane phospholipids, but also the balance between n y3 ) Corresponding author. Tel.: q34-922-318337; Fax: q34-922-253344; E-mail: ealmansa@ull.es 0044-8486r99r$ - see front matter q 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Ž . PII: S0044-8486 98 00415-3