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 WILKENS, J. L.
Right arrow Articles by YOUNG, R. E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by WILKENS, J. L.
Right arrow Articles by YOUNG, R. E.
Journal of Experimental Biology 163,297-316 (1992)
Published by Company of Biologists 1992

REGULATION OF PULMONARY BLOOD FLOW AND OF BLOOD PRESSURE IN A MANGROVE CRAB (GONIOPSIS CRUENTATA)

J. L. WILKENS 1 and R. E. YOUNG 2

1 Regulatory Mechanisms Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary Calgary, Canada
2 Department of Physiology, University of the West Indies Kingston, Jamaica, WI

The air-breathing mangrove crab Goniopsis cruentata ventilates the branchial chambers with its scaphognathites (SG). Ventilation is predominantly in the forward direction, but is punctuated by bouts of reversed pumping. Reversals are more frequent when crabs are in air than in water, and yet more frequent during respiratory stress (hypoxia or exercise). Reversed SG pumping is tightly coupled with bursts of impulses to the dorsal-ventral muscles (DVM) which span the anterolateral thorax. Phasic contractions of the DVMs increase the hemolymph pressure in the dorsal sinuses. These pressure pulses help drive hemolymph through the lungs. The coupled SG reversed ventilation and DVM-assisted increases in lung perfusion appear to be an adaptation to increase gas exchange at the lungs.

When crabs are made hyper- or hypotensive by changes in hemolymph volume, the EMG activity of the DVMs dramatically decreases or increases, respectively. The resultant expansion or constriction of the dorsal sinuses is an effective baroreceptor reflex producing short-term adjustments in hemolymph pressure.

Key words: baroreceptor, branchiostegite, lung, crustacean, dorsal sinus, dorsal-ventral muscle, hypoxia, reversed ventilation, Goniopsis cruentata

Accepted on September 27, 1991






© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1992