title: Is vitamin D redundant in an aquatic habitat?
abstract: Certain fish are very rich sources of vitamin D as compared to most of the higher vertebrates which have insignificant amounts of this vitamin. Not only the teleosts, which possess a calcified skeleton, but also the elasmobranchs, which lack calcified skeleton, contain extremely high concentrations of this vitamin, leading to the speculation that the function of vitamin D in fish may be different from its known classical functions in terrestrial animals. Interestingly, the two most common calcemic hormones associated with Ca and P homeostasis in higher vertebrates are either missing [parathyroid hormone (PTH)] or inactive [calcitonin (CT)] in fish. In fact, these hormones appear to have developed after transition of life from water (Ca-P rich environment) to land (environment poor in Ca and P). Thus, living in an aquatic environment with a continuous rich supply of Ca and P, do fish need vitamin D? If so, does it need to be converted to its polar forms? Additionally what are the functions of vitamin D and its metabolites in fish? Since fish stand between the invertebrates and higher vertebrates in evolution, they serve as a unique model for the study of the evolutionary and physiological significance of vitamin D. Investigations have demonstrated that the source of a high amount of vitamin D in them is primarily through their food-chain (plankton). In addition, it appears from the studies in fish that vitamin D perhaps had no physiological function in the calcium-rich aquatic environment, and its metabolism was essentially for catabolic purposes. During the course of evolution, when life started on calcium poor terrestrial environment, vitamin D became functional and its metabolism, an anabolic one, was concerned with calcium homeostasis.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, India.
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Raghuramulu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000378:metabolism; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D005399:Fishes / Q000502:physiology*; D006706:Homeostasis; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D014807:Vitamin D; D002118:Calcium