Chitin distribution in the Oithona digestive and reproductive systems revealed by fluorescence microscopy
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biochemistry, Marine Biology, Aquatic and Marine Chemistry, Biogeochemistry
- Keywords
- chitin, microscopy, biology marine, anatomy, copepod, Oithona
- Copyright
- © 2018 Sugier et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. Chitin distribution in the Oithona digestive and reproductive systems revealed by fluorescence microscopy. PeerJ Preprints 6:e3447v2 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3447v2
Abstract
Among copepods, which are the most abundant animals on Earth, the genus Oithona is described as one of the most important and plays a major role in the marine food chain and biogeochemical cycles, particularly through the excretion of chitin-coated fecal pellets. Despite the morphology of several Oithona species is well known, knowledge of its internal anatomy and chitin distribution is still limited. To answer this problem, Oithona nana and Oithona similis individuals were stained by WGA-FITC and DAPI for fluorescence microscopy observations. The image analyses allowed a new description of the organization and chitin content of the digestive and reproductive systems of Oithona male and female. Chitin microfibrils were found all along the digestive system from the stomach to the hindgut with a higher concentration at the peritrophic membrane of the anterior midgut. Several midgut shrinkages were observed and proposed to be involved in fecal pellet shaping and motion. Amorphous chitin structures were also found to be a major component of the ducts and seminal vesicles and receptacles. The rapid staining protocol we proposed allowed a new insight into the Oithona internal anatomy and highlighted the role of chitin in the digestion and reproduction. This method could be applied to a wide range of copepods in order to perform comparative anatomy analyses.
Author Comment
Using pf PeerJ latex template