Citation

Mauríz A, Blanco J. Toxicon 2010; 55(2-3): 606-611.

Affiliation

Centro de Investigacións Mariñas. Pedras de Corón s/n. Apdo 13. 36620 Vilanova de Arousa. Spain.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.toxicon.2009.10.017

PMID

19852975

Abstract

The king scallop Pecten maximus accumulates domoic acid, the main amnesic shellfish poisoning toxin, in the digestive gland for a long time. To try to find if the cause of this characteristic is the binding of the toxin to some cellular component, the subcellular distribution of domoic acid in the cells of the digestive gland was studied, by means of serial centrifugation, ultrafiltration and Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC). Domoic acid was found to be present mostly in soluble form in the cytosol, as more than 90% was found in the supernatant after a centrifugation of 1h at 45000 xg, and passed a 10kDa ultrafilter. The retention time of the peak with an absorption maximum of 242nm -the one characteristic of domoic acid- observed in the SEC chromatograms of the scallop samples was found identical to be one of a reference solution of the toxin, indicating therefore, that domoic acid is free in the cytosol of the digestive gland of Pecten maximus. This finding turns the focus from binding to the lack of membrane transporters in this species of the scallop as the cause of the long retention time of domoic acid in this species.

Language: en