Inhibition of oyster drill chemotaxis

A bioassay was developed by Rittschof el al. (1983) to examine distance chemoreception in the predatory marine gastropod, Urosalpinx cinerea. This bioassay was used to test the effect of a senes of low mol. wt. organics on the ability of newly hatched oyster drills to detect a prey odor released from barnacles, Balanus balanoides. Two series of low mol. wt. organics were tested using methanol as the reference compound. In one series, R-OH, the carbon chain length was varied from 1 to 4. In the second series, CH3-R, the chain length was held constant while the functional group, R, was varied. When these compounds were present in the rnM range, they inhibited the creeping response of oyster drills towards barnacle prey odor. In the CH3-R series, inhibition increased in the following order: sodium acetate > ethyl acetate > acetonitnle > methanol; and, in the alcohol series C1 to C4, inhibition increased with increasing chain length. No creeping response was observed when these compounds were tested in the absence of prey odor. © 1985 IRL Press Ltd.

Duke Scholars

Author Daniel Rittschof Marine Science and Conservation