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Journal of Experimental Biology 27,210-225 (1950)
Published by Company of Biologists 1950

Nitrogenous Excretion of Amphipods and Isopods

ELISABETH I. B. DRESEL ¹ and VIVIEN MOYLE ¹

¹ Biochemical Laboratory, University of Cambridge, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, Plymouth

1. The nitrogen excretion of eleven species of amphipods and isopods, including marine, fresh-water and terrestrial forms, has been studied.

2. All species are essentially ammonotelic, since more than 50% of the total soluble N.P.N. of the excreta was present in the form of ammonia throughout.

3. The level of nitrogen excretion is appreciably lower in the terrestrial species than in any of the others, indicating that, in this group, adaptation to terrestrial conditions has been attended by a general suppression of nitrogen metabolism rather than by a transformation of ammonia to other, less toxic products.

4. Some 5-10% of the total soluble N.P.N. was present as urea in the case of the fresh-water amphipod, Gammarus pulex, and as uric acid in the terrestrial isopods as well as the fresh-water isopod, Asellus aquaticus. It is suggested that these minor excretory components might originate from purines as a result of the loss of one or more of the uricolytic enzymes.

5. In association with the excretion of uric acid some retention of this insoluble compound usually occurs, and it was found that among the terrestrial species the amount so stored parallels the degree of morphological and physiological adaptation to terrestrial conditions. The greatest accumulation of uric acid was, however, observed in the fresh-water species, A. aquaticus, and although such a storage cannot necessarily be taken as evidence for a partially uricogenic metabolism, this possibility must be borne in mind.