|
|
|
|||
| Home Help Feedback Subscriptions Archive Search Table of Contents | ||||
First published online March 17, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 1179-1184 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02100
Tribute to R. G. Boutilier: Acidbase transfer across fish gills
Department of Biology and Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, S.A.R. China
* Author for correspondence (e-mail: bhrand{at}cityu.edu.hk)
Accepted 28 December 2005
| Summary |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Key words: acidbase, gills, fish, ammonia, carbon dioxide
| Introduction |
|---|
|
|
|---|
During Bob Boutilier's tenure as a Research Fellow at the University of
British Columbia (19821984) we decided that we needed a better
quantification of the physicochemical parameters associated with fish
respiration. Bob put together a review
(Boutilier et al., 1984
) and we
investigated the carbon dioxide hydration/dehydration reaction in fish plasma
(Boutilier et al., 1985
). These
physical measurements formed a basis for many future studies. What became
clear was that the pH of plasma in fish (and other vertebrates) was midway
between the pK of the CO2/HCO 3 and NH
+4/NH3 reactions and that the transfer of
acid and base across the gills was dominated by these same molecules
(Randall and Wright, 1990
).
Ammonia excreted across the gills raises water pH, whereas carbon dioxide
excretion lowers the pH of water as it passes over the gills. Carbon dioxide
has the dominant effect because it is excreted in greater quantities than
ammonia. More recently we have shown that if fish are placed in a limited
water volume they will acidify the water, reducing pH to around 7.0 within a
few hours. Carbon dioxide excretion and the associated acidification of gill
water augments ammonia excretion (Fig.
1), due to ammonium ion trapping
(Playle and Wood, 1989
;
Wright et al., 1989
;
Wilson et al., 1994
).
|
Mudskippers acidify their burrows as a result of CO2 and proton
excretion. Fish may modulate acid excretion to regulate the pH of the water in
the burrow, as suggested for the mudskipper Periophthalmodon
schlosseri (Chew et al.,
2006
). To test this we placed individual fish in small volumes of
water and measured water pH, CO2 excretion and respiratory exchange
ratios, using a variety of fish species.
| Materials and methods |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Measurement of environmental acidification brought about by fish
Individual fish were placed in a container of suitable size and shape so
that the fish was fully submerged in a volume of water that was equivalent to
10 times the weight of the fish. Water pH was measured at specific time points
using a pH electrode (model: Orion 91-05, Waltham, MA, USA) connected to a pH
meter (model: Orion 250Aplus). Aeration was not provided during the
experiment. Two containers containing approximately equal volumes of water but
without fish were set up to serve as controls. Water used for freshwater
species (weatherloach and goldfish) was dechlorinated tapwater with 1 mmol
l1 Hepes, adjusted to pH 7.7 with NaOH, the buffer
increasing the stability of the pH measurement. For brackish water species
(mudskippers and toadfish), aerated 50% seawater was used. To find out if the
acidification was due to carbon dioxide excretion, proton excretion or both,
the fish was removed from the container at the end of the pH monitoring
period. An air stone with vigorous air supply was placed in the individual
container in order to remove any carbon dioxide produced by the fish. Water pH
was again measured after 1 h of bubbling to compare with the control
water.
The effects of pH and ammonia on the respiratory exchange ratio
A weatherloach was placed in a water-filled enclosed respiratory chamber
without any air bubbling. A small magnetic bar was placed in the chamber to
facilitate mixing within the chamber. Oxygen content at the beginning and the
end of the experiment was measured using a Clark-type oxygen electrode (YSI,
Yellow Springs, OH, USA). Carbon dioxide content was measured using a gas
chromatograph method. Briefly, a water sample was mixed with 1 mmol
l1 HCl in an enclosed syringe and the syringe water was
shaken vigorously for about 10 s so that all carbon dioxide was driven into
the gas phase in the syringe. The gas in the syringe was then removed and
immediately injected into a gas chromatograph. Sodium bicarbonate was used as
a standard. All water samples were analyzed immediately after collection, as a
preliminary experiment showed that delay in analysis resulted in loss of
carbon dioxide. The respiratory exchange (RE) ratio was obtained by dividing
carbon dioxide excretion rate by oxygen consumption rate.
For measurement of the effect of water pH on RE, water containing 2 mmol l1 Tris, pH adjusted to 7.0, 8.0 or 9.0 with HCl, was used. For measurement of the effect of ammonia on RE, water containing 10 mmol l1 Tris and 15 mmol l1 ammonium chloride, pH adjusted to 7.0 with HCl, was used. The time course of each experiment was 3040 min. The fish:water volume ratio was 1:60. The pH of the water was checked at the beginning and the end of experiments and found to have changed by less than 0.1 pH unit.
Statistical analysis
Results are presented as means ± s.e.m. Student's t-test or
one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by
StudentNeumanKeul's multiple range test were used to compare
differences between means where applicable. Differences with
P<0.05 were regarded as statistically significant.
|
| Results and discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
Fish living in enclosed spaces, such as the mudskipper Periophthalmodon
schlosseri, live in acidified conditions. The extent of acidification is
also influenced by burrow position and design, which determines flushing rates
of the burrow. Water from the P. schlosseri burrow was reported to be
about pH 7.0 and the ammonia concentration approximately 3 mmol
l1 (Ip et al.,
2004
). The water was hypercapnic, indicating that at least part of
the acidification process was due to CO2 excretion. Net acid
production by P. schlosseri in laboratory experiments was reduced by
addition of the V-ATPase blocker, bafilomycin, indicating that proton
excretion was also contributing to the acidification process. Raising water pH
also increased net acid production by the fish and this was partially blocked
by bafilomycin, indicating that there was an increase in proton excretion with
increasing water pH. This was also observed in trout; proton excretion across
the gills increases with water pH (Lin and
Randall, 1995
). A portion of the increase in acid excretion
associated with elevated water pH was bafilomycin insensitive and, in
addition, increases in ammonia concentration in water to 20 and 30 mmol
l1 resulted in a large increase in acid excretion. A
possible explanation is that active NH +4 excretion is
coupled to a backflux of NH3 into the animal, this ammonia
recycling resulting in a net acid excretion but no change in ammonia
excretion.
Active ammonium ion excretion by the mudskipper P. schlosseri
occurs in the head region, probably across the gills
(Ip et al., 2004
). The gills
contain very high levels of Na+-K+-ATPase (NKA) in the
basallateral membrane, which can be activated by ammonium, and high
levels of Na+/H+(NH +4) exchanger
(NHE) in the apical membrane (Randall et
al., 1999
). Ammonium excretion can be blocked by ouabain and
amiloride. It is suggested that ammonium ions are removed from the blood
via a Na+-K+/(NH
+4)-ATPase and then cross the apical membrane
via an NHE. Ammonia recycling could account for both the bafilomycin
insensitive and the ammonia stimulated increases in acid excretion across the
gills. In ammonia recycling there would be a backflux of NH3 in the
face of active NH +4 excretion, resulting in a net acid
excretion but reduced ammonium excretion across the gills. Water
NH3 levels increase with pH and total ammonia concentration,
increasing NH3 backflux and, therefore, acid excretion. Thus
reductions in water pH in the mudskipper burrow are probably related to
CO2 and proton excretion and ammonia recycling. The contribution to
acid excretion of proton and CO2 excretion and ammonia recycling
will diminish with reductions in pH in water, maintaining the burrow pH at
around 7.0.
|
Acid excretion across the gills
In addition to the acidbase effects of CO2 and
NH3, carnivorous fish normally have a net acid excretion whereas
herbivorous fish have a net base excretion. Much of this acidbase
regulation in fish occurs across the gills, rather than via the
kidney as in terrestrial vertebrates. Excretion across the gills is
facilitated by a large water flow, which is several orders of magnitude larger
than urine flow, even in freshwater fish. In fact about 90% of compensatory
net transfers occur across the gills and only 10% via other pathways,
including the kidney (Evans, 2005). Fish have low levels of bicarbonate
buffering compared with mammals, but an acidosis is accompanied by plasma
bicarbonate dehydration and an associated increased carbon dioxide excretion.
Blood carbon dioxide levels are normally low and there is little effect of
changing ventilation on carbon dioxide levels, thus ventilation plays little
role in acidbase adjustments in fish, as demonstrated by Bob Boutilier
and others working on the trout (Iwama et
al., 1987
). There is, however, extensive use of acidbase
transfer across gills to regulate plasma pH. There is a low net flux of
non-volatile acid normally and a capacity to increase acid or base flux by an
order of magnitude, given an acid or base load (Evans, 2005).
Proton excretion across the gills is pH dependent; alkaline conditions in
the environment and increased cell acidity promote increased proton excretion
(Lin and Randall, 1995
).
Proton excretion is inhibited in trout at pH 5.5 in water
(Lin and Randall, 1991
), but
many fish live in lower pH waters
(Gonzalez et al., 1998
;
Kaneko et al., 1999
;
Yada and Ito, 1999
). There is
a large flux of carbonate into the gut of fish exposed to high intestinal
Ca2+ levels, resulting in the formation of insoluble
CaCO3, which is excreted with the feces, ameliorating
Ca2+ influx into the fish across the gut wall
(Wilson and Grosell, 2003
).
The acidbase status of the fish, however, is not affected by this large
carbonate loss as it is associated with an equivalent flux of acid across the
gills (Wilson et al.,
1996
).
The gills of many freshwater fish have been shown to contain V-type
proton-ATPase on their apical surface (Figs
3,
4) with co-localization of
carbonic anhydrase (Lin et al.,
1994
). The actual distribution varies both in terms of cell type
and location on gills between fish (Wilson
and Laurent, 2002
). Changes in acid excretion are associated with
changes in the area of exposed gill surface membrane
(Goss et al., 1995
). Proton
excretion is believed to increase via exocytotic insertion of proton
ATPase into the surface membrane, similar to that reported in turtle bladder
(Cannon et al., 1985
) and frog
skin (Harvey, 1992
). Cortisol
has been shown to be associated with increased proton ATPase activity in trout
gills (Lin and Randall, 1993
).
There is also increased expression of proton ATPase following an acid load
(Perry et al., 2003a
) and
sometimes following hypercapnia (Sullivan
et al., 1996
; Perry et al.,
2000
; Galvez et al.,
2002
). Proton ATPase activity decreased after transfer of
salmonids to seawater (Wilson et al.,
2002
).
|
In seawater fish, with reduced or absent proton ATPase activity,
Na+/H+ exhangers (NHEs) in the gill apical membrane are
involved in proton transfer and show an increased expression with acid load
(Edwards et al., 2001
). Some
fish have been reported to have a Na+/HCO
3 cotransporter (NBC1) in the gill basal membrane
(Perry et al., 2003b
). It is
possible that something similar to the mammalian B-type cell has been observed
in killifish with V-type ATPase on the basal-lateral membrane for base
excretion (Katoh et al.,
2003
), but this has not been found in the majority of fish
studied. The gill of Atlantic stingray Dasyatis sabina has been shown
to have an H+-K+-ATPase, which is thought to aid acid
excretion (Choe et al., 2004
).
It is clear that there are at least two types of chloride cell in teleost fish
(Galvez et al., 2002
) and
elasmobranches (Piermarini and Evans,
2001
).
The Japanese osorezan dace can live in acid water of pH 3.5
(Kaneko et al., 1999
). There
are NHE3 transporters in the apical membrane of the gills associated with
carbonic anhydrase (CA), and NBC1 as well as NKA are found in the basolateral
membrane (Hirata et al.,
2003
). There appears to be increased local synthesis of ammonia
when the fish is in acidic water as mRNA of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), an
enzyme involved in glutamine degradation and ammoniagenesis, was increased in
all tissues examined (Hirata et al.,
2003
). It is possible that alkalinization of boundary layer by
ammonia or ammonium ion excretion via NHE will augment acid excretion
in this fish and enable it to survive in very acid conditions.
Even less is known about base excretion in fish. Base excretion has been
shown to increase with base load via anion exchangers (AE) with
chloride as the counter ion. There is increased expression of AE in the gills
of rainbow trout following a base load
(Sullivan et al., 1996
). Some
fish excrete carbonate via the gut
(Wilson and Grosell, 2003
),
but this is considered to be related to calcium homeostasis rather than
acidbase regulation.
It is clear that the gills are the major site of acidbase regulation in fish. In addition, several mechanisms, such as the V-type ATPase, have been described. To understand how these mechanisms are integrated to achieve acidbase homeostasis, however, will require much more work.
| Acknowledgments |
|---|
| References |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Boutilier, R. G., Randall, D. J., Shelton, G. and Toews, D. P. (1978). Some response characteristics of CO2 electrodes. Respir. Physiol. 32,381 -388.[Medline]
Boutilier, R. G., Randall, D. J., Shelton, G. and Toews, D.
P. (1979a). Acidbase relationships in the blood of the
toad, Bufo marinus. 1. The effects of environmental
CO2. J. Exp. Biol.
82,331
-344.
Boutilier, R. G., Randall, D. J., Shelton, G. and Toews, D.
P. (1979b). Acidbase relationships in the blood of the
toad, Bufo marinus. 2. The effects of dehydration. J. Exp.
Biol. 82,345
-355.
Boutilier, R. G., Randall, D. J., Shelton, G. and Toews, D.
P. (1979c). Acidbase relationships in the blood of the
toad, Bufo marinus. 3. The effects of burrowing. J. Exp.
Biol. 82,357
-365.
Boutilier, R. G., Heming, T. A. and Iwama, G. K. (1984). Physiochemical parameters for use in fish respiratory physiology. In Fish Physiology, vol.10A (ed. W. S. Hoar and D. J. Randall), pp.403 -430. New York: Academic Press.
Boutilier, R. G., Iwama, G. K., Heming, T. A. and Randall, D. J. (1985). The apparent pK of carbonic acid in rainbow trout plasma between 5 and 15°C. Respir. Physiol. 61,237 -254.[CrossRef][Medline]
Cannon, C., Adelsberg van, J., Kelly, S. and Al-Awqati, Q. (1985). Carbondioxide-induced exocytotic insertion of H+ pumps in turtle bladder luminal membrane: role of cell pH and calcium. Nature 314,443 -445.[CrossRef][Medline]
Chew, S. F., Wilson, J. M., Ip, Y. K. and Randall, D. J. (2006). Nitrogen excretion and defense against ammonia toxicity. In The Physiology of Tropical Fishes, Vol.21 (ed. A. L. Val, V. M. Almeida-Val and D. J. Randall), pp. 307-379. New York: Academic Press.
Choe, K. P., Verlander, J. W., Wingo, C. S. and Evans, D. H. (2004). A putative H+-K+-ATPase in the Atlantic stingray, Dasyatis sabina: primary sequence and expression in gills. Am. J. Physiol. 287,R981 -R991.
Edwards, S. L., Claiborne, J. B., Morrison-Shetlar, A. I. and Toop, T. (2001). Expression of Na+/H+ exchanger mRNA in the gills of the Atlantic hagfish (Myxine glutinosa) in response to metabolic acidosis. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 130A,81 -91.[CrossRef]
Evans, D. H., Piermarini, P. M. and Choe, K. P.
(2005). The multifunctional fish gill: Dominant site of gas
exchange, osmoregulation, acidbase regulation, and excretion of
nitrogenous waste. Physiol. Rev.
85, 97-177.
Galvez, F., Reid, S. D., Hawkings, G. and Goss, G. G. (2002). Isolation and characterization of mitochondria-rich cell types from the gill of freshwater rainbow trout. Am. J. Physiol. 282,R658 -R668.
Gonzalez, R. J., Wood, C. M., Wilson, R. W., Patrick, M. L., Bergman, H. L., Narahara, A. and Val, A. L. (1998). Effects of water pH and calcium concentration on ion balance in fish of the Rio Negro, Amazon. Physiol. Zool. 71, 15-22.[Medline]
Goss, G. G., Perry, S. F. and Laurent, P. (1995). Ultrastructural and morphometric studies on ion and acidbase transport processes in fresh-water fish. In Cellular and Molecular Approaches to Fish Ionic Regulation (ed. C. M. Wood and T. Shuttleworth), pp.257 -284. San Diego (CA): Academic Press.
Harvey, B. J. (1992). Energization of sodium
absorption by the H+-ATPase pump in mitochondria-rich cells of frog
skin. J. Exp. Biol. 172,289
-309.
Hirata, T., Kaneko, T., Ono, T., Nakazato, T., Furukawa, N., Hasegawa, S., Wakabayashi, S., Shingekawa, W., Chang, M. H., Romero, M. F. et al. (2003). Mechanism of acid adaptation of a fish living in a pH 3.5 lake. Am. J. Physiol. 284,R1199 -R1212.
Ip, Y. K., Randall, D. J., Kok, T. K. T., Barzaghi, C., Wright,
P. A., Ballantyne, J. S., Wilson, J. M. and Chew, S. F.
(2004). The giant mudskipper Periophthalmodon schlosseri
facilitates active NH +4 excretion by increasing acid
excretion and decreasing NH3 permeability in the skin.
J. Exp. Biol. 207,787
-801.
Iwama, G. K., Boutilier, R. G., Herning, T. A., Randall, D. J. and Mazeaud, M. (1987). The effects of altering gill water flow on CO2 excretion in rainbow trout. Can. J. Zool. 65,2466 -2470.
Kaneko, T., Hasegawa, S., Uchida, K., Ogasawara, T., Oyagi, A. and Hirano, T. (1999). Acid tolerance of Japanese dace (a cyprinid teleost) in Lake Osorezan, a remarkable acid lake. Zool. Sci. 16,871 -877.[CrossRef]
Katoh, F., Hyodo, S. and Kaneko, T. (2003).
Vacuolar-type proton pump in the basolateral plasma membrane energizes ion
uptake in branchial mitochondria-rich cells of killifish Fundulus
heteroclitus, adapted to a low ion environment. J. Exp.
Biol. 206,793
-803.
Lin, H. and Randall, D. (1991). Evidence for
the presence of an electrogenic proton pump on the trout gill epithelium.
J. Exp. Biol. 161,119
-134.
Lin, H. and Randall, D. J. (1993). H+-ATPase activity in crude homogenates of fish gill tissue inhibitor sensitivity and environmental and hormonal-regulation. J. Exp. Biol. 180,163 -174.[Abstract]
Lin, H. and Randall, D. J. (1995). Proton pumps in fish gills. In Fish Physiology, Ionoregulation: Cellular and Molecular, Vol. 14 (ed. C. M. Wood and T. Shuttleworth), pp. 229-255. New York: Academic Press.
Lin, H., Pfeiffer, D. C., Vogl, A. W., Pan, J. and Randall, D. J. (1994). Immunolocalization of proton-ATPase in the gill epithelia of rainbow trout. J. Exp. Biol. 195,169 -183.[Abstract]
Perry, S. F., Beyers, M. L. and Johnson, D. A. (2000). Cloning and molecular characterization of the trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) vacuolar H+-ATPase B subunit. J. Exp. Biol. 203,459 -470.[Abstract]
Perry, S. F., Furimsky, M., Bayaa, M., Georgalis, T., Shahsavarani, A., Nickerson, J. G. and Moon, T. W. (2003a). Integrated responses of Na+/HCO3 cotransporters and V-type H+-ATPases in the fish gill and kidney during respiratory acidosis. Biochim. Biophys. Acta Biomembr. 1618,175 -184.[Medline]
Perry, S. F., Shahsavarani, A., Georgalis, T., Bayaa, M., Furimsky, M. and Thomas, S. L. Y. (2003b). Channels, pumps, and exchangers in the gill and kidney of freshwater fishes: their role in ionic and acidbase regulation. J. Exp. Zool. A 300, 53-62.
Piermarini, P. M. and Evans, D. H. (2001).
Immunochemical analysis of the vacuolar proton-ATPase B-subunit in the gills
of a euryhaline stingray (Dasyatis sabina): effects of salinity and
relation to Na+/K+-ATPase J. Exp.
Biol. 204,3251
-3259.
Playle, R. C. and Wood, C. M. (1989). Water chemistry changes in the gill micro-environment of rainbow trout: experimental observations and theory. J. Comp. Physiol. B. 159, 527.
Randall, D. J. and Wright, P. A. (1990). The interaction between carbon dioxide and ammonia excretion and water pH in fish. Can. J. Zool. 67,2936 -2942.
Randall, D. J., Wilson, J. M., Peng, K. W., Kok, T. W. K., Kuah, S. S. L., Chew, S. F., Lam, T. J. and Ip, Y. K. (1999). The mudskipper, Periophthalmodon schlosseri, actively transports NH +4 against a concentration gradient. Am. J. Physiol. 277,R1562 -R1567.
Randall, D. J., Ip, Y. K., Chew, S. F. and Wilson, J. M. (2004). Air breathing and ammonia excretion in the giant mudskipper, Periophthalmodon schlosseri. Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 77,783 -788.
Sullivan, G. V., Fryer, J. N. and Perry, S. F. (1996). Localization of mRNA for proton pump (H+-ATPase) and Cl/HCO 3 exchanger in rainbow trout gill. Can. J. Zool. 74,2095 -2103.
Wilson, J. M. and Laurent, P. (2002). Fish gill morphology: inside out. J. Exp. Zool. 293, 1-23.[Medline]
Wilson, J. M., Laurent, P., Tufts, B. L., Benos, D. J., Donowitz, M., Vogl, A. W. and Randall, D. J. (2000). NaCl uptake by the branchial epithelium in freshwater teleost fish: An immunological approach to ion-transport protein localization. J. Exp. Biol. 203,2279 -2296.[Abstract]
Wilson, J. M., Whiteley, N. M. and Randall, D. J. (2002). Ionoregulatory changes in the gill epithelia of coho salmon during seawater acclimation. Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 75,237 -249.[CrossRef][Medline]
Wilson, R. W. and Grosell, M. (2003). Intestinal bicarbonate secretion in marine teleost fish source of bicarbonate, pH sensitivity, and consequences for whole animal acidbase and calcium homeostasis. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1618,163 -174.[Medline]
Wilson, R. W., Wright, P. A., Munger, S. and Wood, C. M. (1994). Ammonia excretion in freshwater rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and the importance of gill boundary layer acidification: lack of evidence for Na+-NH + 4exchange. J. Exp. Biol. 191, 37-58.[Abstract]
Wilson, R. W., Gilmour, K. M., Henry, R. P. and Wood, C. M. (1996). Intestinal base excretion in the seawater-adapted rainbow trout: a role in acidbase balance? J. Exp. Biol. 199,2331 -2343.[Abstract]
Wright, P. A., Randall, D. J. and Perry, S. F. (1989). Fish gill water boundary layer: a site of linkage between carbon dioxide and ammonia excretion. J. Comp. Physiol. 158,627 -635.[CrossRef]
Yada, T. and Ito, F. (1999). Sodium-retaining effects of cortisol, prolactin, and estradiol-17 beta in medaka Oryzias latipes exposed to acid water. Fish. Sci. 65,405 -409.
![]()
CiteULike
Complore
Connotea
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Technorati
Twitter What's this?
Related articles in JEB:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||