spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by MORRIS, S.
Right arrow Articles by TAYLOR, E. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by MORRIS, S.
Right arrow Articles by TAYLOR, E. W.
Journal of Experimental Biology 121,315-326 (1986)
Published by Company of Biologists 1986

The Regulation of Haemocyanin Oxygen Affinity during Emersion of the Crayfish Austropotamobius Pallipes : I. An In Vitro Investigation of the Interactive Effects of Calcium and L-Lactate on Oxygen Affinity

S. MORRIS 1, R. TYLER-JONES 2, and E. W. TAYLOR 2

1 Institut für Zoologie IV, Lehrstuhl für Stoffwechselphysiologie, Universität Düsseldorf, D-4000 Düsseldorf, FRG
2 Department of Zoology and Comparative Physiology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, England

The haemolymph of the crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes exhibits a high affinity for oxygen (P50 = 2.7 Torr at pH7.9 and 15°C) and a modest Bohr effect ({phi} =0.455). The affinity of haemolymph dialysed against a crayfish Ringer was lower with a P50 value of 6.4 Torr at the same temperature and pH. The oxygen affinity of the dialysed haemolymph can be increased markedly by increased concentrations of L-lactate and to a greater extent by elevated concentrations of calcium ions.

In the dialysed preparation, the potentiating effects of L-lactate and Ca2+ on haemocyanin oxygen affinity were found to be interdependent. Elevating the concentration of one of these two ions reduced the effect of the other.

The increase in the oxygen affinity of the haemocyanin brought about by elevated Ca2+ and L-lactate was insufficient to account for the difference in affinity between dialysed and nondialysed haemolymph. The mutually agonistic effects of Ca2+ and L-lactate are described both empirically and graphically.

Key words: crayfish, L-lactate, calcium, haemocyanin, oxygen affinity

Accepted on September 20, 1985






© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1986