Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T05:11:58.210Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Uptake of radioactive sodium (24Na) by Nereis diversicolor Mueller and Perinereis cultrifera (Grube)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Vera Fretter
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Birkbeck College, University of London

Extract

Nereis diversicolor is typically euryhaline: it is in equilibrium with normal sea water (Schlieper, 1929; Beadle, 1937), and develops hypertonicity in more dilute media which it is able to maintain indefinitely. The maintenance of this steady state is preceded by a transition period. During this there is a rapid uptake of water accompanied by a loss of salts from the worm, resulting in a fall in the osmotic pressure of the body fluids, and then a subsequent water loss which, according to Ellis (1937), is not accompanied by an uptake of salts. Worms accommodated to 25% sea water weigh about 140% of their original weight (Beadle, 1931). Beadle (1937) found that when the steady state is attained the body fluid concentration in 50% sea water approaches a value which is about 5% higher than that of the external medium, whereas in 25% sea water the concentration of the body fluid is equivalent to about 44% sea water. His worms were collected from the Northumberland coast, and concentration measurements of the body fluid were determined by Baldes's modification of the Hill vapour-pressure method. The results of Schlieper (1929) on worms from Heligoland, where they may live in a salinity as low as 4%, are based on freezing-point determinations and give a higher internal concentration in the dilute media: after 3 days in 50% sea water the concentration of the body fluid is equivalent to 68% sea water, and after 2 days in 25% sea water equivalent to 49% sea water. These varying results suggest the occurrence of local physiological races.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1955

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abelson, P. H. & Duryee, W. R., 1949. Radioactive sodium permeability and exchange in frog eggs. Biol. Bull., Woods Hole, Vol. 96, pp. 205–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arnott, D. G. & Fossey, P., 1952. Experiments for studying the distribution of γ-active radioisotopes in small animals. J. Physiol., Vol. 118, pp. 1819 P.Google Scholar
Beadle, L. C., 1931. The effect of salinity changes on the water content and respiration of marine invertebrates. J. exp. Biol., Vol. 8, pp. 211–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beadle, L. C., 1937. Adaptation to changes of salinity in the polychaetes. I. Control of body volume and of body fluid concentration in Nereis diversicolor. J. exp. Biol., Vol. 14, pp. 5670.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cole, W. H., 1940. The composition of fluids and sera of some marine animals and of the sea water in which they live. J. gen. Physiol., Vol. 23, pp. 575–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellis, W. G., 1937. The water and electrolyte exchange of Nereis diversicolor (Müller). J. exp. Biol., Vol. 14, pp. 340–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, W. G., 1939. Comparative measurements of water and electrolyte exchange in a stenohaline and in a euryhaline polychaete. J. exp. Biol., Vol. 16, pp. 483–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freedberg, A. S., Ureles, A. & Van Dilla, M., 1949. Studies with a new method for quantitative measurement of I131 content for the thyroid gland in man. J. clin. Invest., Vol. 28, p. 782.Google Scholar
Jørgensen, C. B. & Dales, P., 1954. The regulation of volume and osmotic regulation in some nereid polychaetes. (Unpublished.)Google Scholar
Jørgensen, C. B., Levi, H. & Ussing, H. H., 1947. On the influence of the neurohypophyseal principles on the sodium metabolism of the Axolotl (Amblystoma mexicanum). Acta physiol. scand., Vol. 12, pp. 350–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jurgens, O., 1935. Die Wechselbeziehungen von Blutkreislauf, Atmung und Osmoregulation bei Polychäten (Nereis diversicolor O. F. Müll.). Zool. Jb., Bd. 55, pp. 146.Google Scholar
Krogh, A., 1939. Osmotic Regulation in Aquatic Animals. 242 pp. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pannikar, N. K., 1940. Influence of temperature on osmotic behaviour of some Crustacea and its bearings on problems of animal distribution. Nature, Lond., Vol. 146, pp. 366–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlieper, C., 1929. Ueber die Einwirkung niederer Salzkonzentrationen auf marine Organismen. Z. vergl. Physiol., Bd. 9, pp. 478514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veall, N. & Vetter, H., 1952. An apparatus for the rapid estimation of tracer quantities of radioactive isotopes in excreta. Brit. J. Radiol., Vol. 25, pp. 85–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Webb, D. A., 1940. Ionic regulation in Carcinus maenas. Proc. roy. Soc. B, Vol. 129, pp. 107–36.Google Scholar
Wells, G. P. & Ledingham, I. C., 1940. Physiological effects of a hypotonic environment. 1. The action of hypotonic salines on isolated rhythmic preparations from polychaete worms (Arenicola marina, Nereis diversicolor, Perinereis cultrifera). J. exp. Biol., Vol. 17, pp. 337–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar