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 PIERCE~JR., S. K. Articles by GREENBERG, M. J. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by PIERCE~JR., S. K. Articles by GREENBERG, M. J.

Journal of Experimental Biology 57,681-692 (1972)
Published by Company of Biologists 1972

The Nature of Cellular Volume Regulation In Marine Bivalves

SIDNEY K. PIERCE~JR. ¹ and MICHAEL J. GREENBERG ¹

¹ Department of Zoology, University of Maryland College Park, Maryland 20742, The Marine Biological Labaratory, Woods Hole Massachusetts

1. Regulation of cell volume utilizing intracellular free amino acids has been studied in isolated ventricles from marine bivalves of the genus Modiolus.

2. As in the intact animal, ventricles taken from Modiolus acclimated to various salinities show only a slight change in tissue hydration. This control over cell volume is accomplished by isosmotic intracellular regulation of taurine, alanine, glycine and proline concentrations.

3. When stressed with decreased external salinities the isolated spontaneously beating ventricle becomes quiescent for a period, and then resumes activity. During the period of quiescence ninhydrin-positive substances (NPS) are released. The duration of quiscence and the amount of NPS released increase with increasing dilution of the external medium.

4. The salinity-induced NPS efflux is composed of taurine, alanine, glycine and proline.

5. In molluscs, the amino acids utilized for volume regulation are released from the cells unchanged and are not degraded into keto-acids and ammonia as they are in the crustaceans.

Note:

Contribution no. 10 from the Tallahassee, Sopchoppy and Gulf Coast Marine Biological Association

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. C. Hiong, W. Y. X. Peh, A. M. Loong, W. P. Wong, S. F. Chew, and Y. K. Ip Exposure to air, but not seawater, increases the glutamine content and the glutamine synthetase activity in the marsh clam Polymesoda expansa J. Exp. Biol., December 15, 2004; 207(26): 4605 - 4614. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]