title: Accumulation of tetrodotoxin (TTX) in Pseudocaligus fugu, a parasitic copepod from panther puffer Takifugu pardalis, but without vertical transmission--using an immunoenzymatic technique.
abstract: The caligid copepod Pseudocaligus fugu, a common parasite on the body surface of both toxic (Takifugu pardalis) and cultured, non-toxic (Takifugu rubripes) puffer fishes, was isolated and analyzed for the presence of tetrodotoxin (TTX) using a monoclonal anti-TTX antibody-based immunohistochemical technique. Histological sections of female P. fugu from Takifugu pardalis explicitly revealed that positive brown staining was visible in regions of gut and appendages, and also in the general body tissues from the prosome to the urosome. It is absent from the epicuticle, ovary, oviduct, uterus and egg sacs, where clear negative blue color reaction was obtained. In contrast, the caligids on cultured, non-toxic Takifugu rubripes, considered as negative control, had no sign of TTX. The results indicate that there is no vertical transmission of TTX in the parasitic caligids, which could acquire TTX by feeding on the toxic mucus and skin tissues of host puffer fish.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan.
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ikeda
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Venmathi Maran
authors.forename: Shunichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Honda
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ohtsuka
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Arakawa
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takatani
authors.forename: Manabu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Asakawa
authors.forename: Geoffrey A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Boxshall
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D033342:Copepoda / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D023721:Tetraodontiformes / Q000469:parasitology*; D013779:Tetrodotoxin / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D013779:Tetrodotoxin