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 References
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 Similar articles in PubMed
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 Hauschild, K.
Right arrow Articles by Grieshaber, M. K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hauschild, K.
Right arrow Articles by Grieshaber, M. K.

Journal of Experimental Biology, Vol 202, Issue 7 855-866, Copyright © 1999 by Company of Biologists

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Excretion of thiosulphate, the main detoxification product of sulphide, by the lugworm arenicola marina L

K Hauschild, WM Weber, W Clauss and MK Grieshaber
Institut fur Zoophysiologie, Lehrstuhl fur Stoffwechselphysiologie, Heinrich-Heine Universitat, Universitatsstrasse 1/26.12, Germany and Institut fur Tierphysiologie, Justus-Liebig Universitat, Giessen, Germany. griesha@uni-duesseldorf.de.

Thiosulphate, the main sulphide detoxification product, is accumulated in the body fluids of the lugworm Arenicola marina. The aim of this study was to elucidate the fate of thiosulphate. Electrophysiological measurements revealed that the transepithelial resistance of body wall sections was 76+/-34 capomega cm2 (mean +/- s.d., N=14), indicating that the body wall of the lugworm is a leaky tissue in which mainly paracellular transport along cell junctions takes place. The body wall was equally permeable from both sides to thiosulphate, the permeability coefficient of which was 1. 31x10(-)3+/-0.37x10(-)3 cm h-1 (mean +/- s.d., N=30). No evidence was found for a significant contribution of the gills or the nephridia to thiosulphate permeation. Thiosulphate flux followed the concentration gradient, showing a linear correlation (r=0.997) between permeated and supplied (10-100 mmol l-1) thiosulphate. The permeability of thiosulphate was not sensitive to the presence of various metabolic inhibitors, implicating a permeation process independent of membrane proteins and showing that the lugworm does not need to use energy to dispose of the sulphide detoxification product. The present data suggest a passive permeation of thiosulphate across the body wall of A. marina. In live lugworms, thiosulphate levels in the coelomic fluid and body wall tissue decreased slowly and at similar rates during recovery from sulphide exposure. The decline in thiosulphate levels followed a decreasing double-exponential function. Thiosulphate was not further oxidized to sulphite or sulphate but was excreted into the sea water.




© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1999