Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T03:37:30.131Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The permeability to oxygen and the guanine content of the swimbladder of a physoclist fish, Pollachius virens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Lindsay G. Ross
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland

Extract

Moreau (1876), Bohr (1894), and Fänge (1953) are among those authors who have demonstrated that the swimbladder walls of certain fish are highly impermeable to gases. This property assists in the maintenance of high partial pressures of gases in the swim-bladder and enables physoclist fish to use the swimbladder as a buoyancy mechanism, often at great depth. It has been shown experimentally that the swimbladder contains a high percentage of oxygen (Fänge, 1953; Kanwisher & Ebeling, 1957) and that this percentage increases with depth in most fish (Scholander & Van Dam, 1953; Scholander, 1954). Diffusion of gas through a tissue increases with increasing partial pressure difference across the tissue (Krogh, 1919). This may be as high as 10–20 atm in inshore gadoids such as the saithe, Pollachius virens (L.) or 50–60 atm in mesopelagic fish (Kanwisher & Ebeling, 1957). Thus low permeability to oxygen is required if the swimbladder is to be used as a buoyancy mechanism at any depth.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1979

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

Alexander, R. McN., 1970. Functional Design in Fishes, 2nd edition. 160 pp. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Bohr, C., 1894. The influence of section of the vagus nerve on the gas disengagement of gases in the air-bladder of fishes. Journal of Physiology, 15, 494500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denton, E. J., Liddicoat, J. D. & Taylor, D. W., 1970. Impermeable silvery layers in fish. Journal of Physiology, 207, 6465P.Google ScholarPubMed
Denton, E. J., Liddicoat, J. D. & Taylor, D. W., 1972. The permeability to gases of the swim bladder of the conger eel (Conger conger). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 52, 727746.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fänge, R., 1953. The mechanims of gas transport in the euphysoclist swimbladder. Acta physiologica scandinavica, 30, suppl. 110. 134 pp.Google Scholar
Greenstein, L. M., 1966. Nacreous pigments and their properties. Proceedings of the Scientific Section of the Toilet Goods Association, 45, 2026.Google Scholar
Kanwisher, J. & Ebeling, A., 1957. Composition of swimbladder gas in bathypelagic fish Deep-Sea Research, 4, 211217.Google Scholar
Krogh, A., 1919. The rate of diffusion of gases through animal tissues with some remarks on the coefficient of invasion. Journal of Physiology, 52, 391408.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kutchai, H. & Steen, J. B., 1971. The permeability of the swimbladder. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, 39 A, 119123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lapennas, G. N. & Schmidt-Nielsen, N., 1977. Swimbladder permeability to oxygen. Journal of Experimental Biology, 67, 175196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moreau, F. A., 1876. Recherches experimentales sur les fonctions de la vessie natatoire. Annales des sciences naturelles, ser. 6, 4, 185.Google Scholar
Ross, L. G., 1976. The permeability to oxygen of the swimbladder of Ceratoscopelus maderensis. Marine Biology, 37, 8387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, L. G., 1978a. The innervation of the resorptive structures in the swimbladder of a physoclist fish Pollachius wrens. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology. Part C. (In the Press.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, L. G., 1978b. The haemodynamics of gas resorption from the physoclist swimbladder. I. The structure and morphometrics of the oval in Pollachius virens. Journal of Fish Biology. (In the Press.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, L. G. & Gordon, J. D. M., 1978. Guanine and permeability in swimbladders of slope-dwelling fish. In Proceedings of the 12th European Symposium on Marine Biology, Stirling, 1977 (ed. McLusky, D. S. and Berry, A. J.), pp. 113121. Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Scholander, P. F., 1954. Secretion of gases against high partial pressures in the swimbladder of deep-sea fishes. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass., 107, 260277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scholander, P. F. & Van Dam, L., 1953. Composition of the swimbladder gas in deep-sea fishes. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass., 104, 7586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tytler, P. & Blaxter, J. H. S., 1973. Adaptation by cod and saithe to pressure changes. Netherlands Journal of Sea Research, 7, 3145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittenberg, J. B., Schwend, M. J. & Wittenberg, B. A., 1964. The secretion of oxygen into the swimbladder of fish. III. The role of carbon dioxide. Journal of General Physiology, 48, 337355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar