Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T16:53:52.370Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Studies on Schistocephalus solidus

4. The effect of temperature on growth and maturation in vitro

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

D. P. Sinha  and
C. A. Hopkins
D. P. Sinha
Affiliation:
Wellcome Laboratories for Experimental Parasitology, The University of Glasgow, Scotland
C. A. Hopkins
Affiliation:
Wellcome Laboratories for Experimental Parasitology, The University of Glasgow, Scotland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The growth rate of Schistocephalus solidus was measured in culture at 4°, 7°, 12°, 17°, 23°, 27°, 30°, 33°, 35° and 40 °C. Between 7° and 23 °C the rate of growth increased nearly exponentially, with a Q10 of 3·6. Between 23° and 27 °C growth rate was maximal; above 27 °C, after 8 days in culture, weight increase was shown only by worms which were too small to mature. Even in these worms the weight increase was very small and was probably due to partial maturation which occurs from 30 °C upwards. The larger the plerocercoid and the higher the temperature up to 40 °C the bigger the percentage weight loss, due to earlier maturation.

Incubation of plerocercoids for 4 days at 35 °C, although inducing maturation and suppressing somatic growth, did not destroy the ability of the worm to grow when returned to 23 °C.

Two hypotheses to explain the pattern of morphogenesis in Schistocephalus plerocercoids and adults are propounded; the evidence favours the existence of two enzyme systems, one controlling somatic growth with peak efficiency near 23 °C and the other controlling maturation with peak efficiency near 40 °C.

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support for this work from Shell International Petroleum Company Limited. It is also a pleasure to thank Miss Patricia Grant for technical help.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 57 , Issue 3 , August 1967 , pp. 555 - 566
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

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

Bråten, T. (1966). Host specificity in Schistocephalus solidus. Parasitology 56, 657–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davies, S. P. & Walkey, M. (1966). The effect of body size and temperature upon oxygen consumption of the cestode Schistocephalus solidus (Mütter). Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 18, 415–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, C. A. (1952). Studies in cestode metabolism, II. The utilization of glycogen by Schistocephalus solidus in vitro. Expl Parasit. 1, 196–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, C. A. & McCaig, M. L. O. (1963). Studies on Schistocephalus solidus. I. The correlation of development in the plerocercoid with infectivity to the definitive host. Expl Parasit. 13, 235–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCaig, M. L. O. & Hopkins, C. A. (1965). Studies on Schistocephalus solidus. 3. The in vitro cultivation of the plerocercoid. Parasitology 55, 257–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Needham, J. (1950). Biochemistry and Morphogenesis. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Smyth, J. D. (1946). Studies on tapeworm physiology. I. The cultivation of Schistocephalus solidus in vitro. J. exp. Biol. 23, 47–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smyth, J. D. (1952). Studies on tapeworm physiology. VI. Effect of temperature on the maturation in vitro of Schistocephalus solidus. J. exp. Biol. 29, 304–09.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wikgren, Bo-J. & Nikander, P. (1964). Cause of death of plerocercoids of Diphyllobothrium latum (L.) at low temperatures. Memo. Soc. Fauna Flora fenn. 40, 189–92.Google Scholar