QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by MOTAIS, R. Articles by ISAIA, J. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by MOTAIS, R. Articles by ISAIA, J.

Journal of Experimental Biology 56,587-600 (1972)
Published by Company of Biologists 1972

Temperature-Dependence of Permeability to Water and to Sodium of the Gill Epithelium of the Eel Anguilla Anguilla

R. MOTAIS ¹ and J. ISAIA ¹

¹ Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire et Groupe de Biologie Marine du C.E.A., Faculté des Sciences de l'Université de Nice 06, Nice, France

1. The temperature dependence of diffusional permeability to water was studied in freshwater-adapted and seawater-adapted eels. The pattern of temperature acclimation is discussed.

2. The ratio of water permeability to sodium permeability is approximately 3 at 25°C, but falls to 1 at 5°C. This drop is mainly due to a diminution of the water permeability, the temperature coefficients being much higher for water than for sodium.

3. The relatively independent variations of water and sodium permeabilities in the seawater-adapted fish probably indicate a certain dissociation between water movements and salt movements.

4. In the freshwater-adapted eel the osmotic permeability is considerably higher than the diffusional permeability, which supports the previously advanced hypothesis concerning the presence of water-filled channels in the branchial epithelium.

5. In the seawater-adapted eel the osmotic permeability is lower than the diffusional permeability, this difference being greater the lower the temperature. This surprising result must signify either that the osmotic pressure difference between blood and sea water does not represent the true osmotic gradient across the membrane, or that a reabsorption of water linked with a movement of solutes occurs in a specialized region of the gill.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. P. Cutler and G. Cramb Branchial expression of an aquaporin 3 (AQP-3) homologue is downregulated in the European eel Anguilla anguilla following seawater acclimation J. Exp. Biol., September 1, 2002; 205(17): 2643 - 2651. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P Tytler and J Ireland The influence of salinity and temperature change on the functioning of the urinary bladder in the early larval stages of the atlantic herring Clupea harengus L J. Exp. Biol., January 1, 2000; 203(2): 415 - 422. [Abstract] [PDF]