In mammals, ovulation is accompanied by broad-spectrum proteolysis and the implication of several classes of proteases is well documented (see [53] for review). In salmonid fish, several proteases have been identified in the periovulatory ovary [54] . In mammals, there is evidence that mature ovarian follicles contain proteolytic enzymes, including serine proteases. Indeed, serine proteases have been implicated in both ovulatory and inflammatory reactions (see [50] for review). In the present study, serine protease 23 (sp23) gene appears progressively up-regulated during the preovulatory period. To our knowledge, sp23 gene expression was never reported in the periovulatory ovary of any vertebrate species. However, we could speculate that this protease participates in the rainbow trout ovulatory process. Interestingly, our data showed that adam22 metalloprotease-disintegrin gene was sharply up-regulated at the time of oocyte maturation. The metalloprotease-disintegrin protein family (also known as ADAMs: A Disintegrin And Metalloproteinases) is thought to function in cell-cell interactions and in the proteolysis of luminal or extracellular protein domains. In mammals, several ADAMs family members are involved in the ovulatory process. In brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), metalloprotease activity increases in the ovary prior to ovulation [8, 9] . Together, these observations also suggest that adam22 also participates in the rainbow trout ovulatory process.