title: Physiological roles of free D- and L-alanine in the crayfish Procambarus clarkii with special reference to osmotic and anoxic stress responses.
abstract: Under hyper-salinity stress from freshwater to 17 and 25 ppt seawater, red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii largely accumulated D- and L-alanine together with glycine, L-glutamine, and L-proline in both muscle and hepatopancreas. The increases of D- and L-alanine in muscle were the highest in all amino acids and reached 6.8- and 5.4-fold, respectively, from freshwater to 25 ppt seawater. These results indicate that both D- and L-alanine are the most potent osmolytes for intracellular isosmotic regulation in crayfish as well as other crustaceans thus far examined. Under anoxia stress below 0.1 mg/l dissolved oxygen for 12 h and subsequent recovery in normoxia for 12 h in freshwater, 17 and 25 ppt seawater, muscle ATP decreased dramatically in all salinity levels and almost depleted in seawater. Along with the decrease of muscle glycogen level, the significant increase of L-lactate was found in muscle, hepatopancreas, and hemolymph for each salinity level, suggesting the transport of L-lactate from muscle into hepatopancreas via hemolymph. Under anoxia, D- and L-alanine also largely increased in both muscle and hepatopancreas for each salinity level. The increase was much higher in seawater than in freshwater. Thus, both D- and L-alanine are possible to be anaerobic end products during prolonged anaerobiosis of this species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, 113-8657, Tokyo, Japan
authors.forename: Tamaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujimori
authors.forename: Hiroki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Abe
mesh_terms: D000409:Alanine / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D003400:Astacoidea / Q000502:physiology*; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000503:physiopathology; D009997:Osmotic Pressure; D013237:Stereoisomerism
chemical_list: D000409:Alanine