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Science 3 February 1967:
Vol. 155. no. 3762, pp. 570 - 573
DOI: 10.1126/science.155.3762.570
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Articles

Urea and Its Formation in Coelacanth Liver

G. W. Brown Jr. 1 and Susan G. Brown 1

1 Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas Medical Branch, and Tiburon Company, Biomarine Preparations, Galveston, Texas 77550

Urea occurs in liver of the coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae to the extent of about 1.7 percent by weight. It was determined quantitatively by reaction with 1-phenyl-1,2-propanedione-2-oxime (Archibald reagent) and by measurement of ammonia released upon treatment with urease. Arginase and ornithine carbamoyltransferase, enzymes instrumental in the formation of urea in typical ureotelic vertebrates, occur in homogenates of coelacanth liver. Formed in part by the ornithine-urea cycle, urea may have an osmoregulatory function in the coelacanth as it has in elasmobranchs.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Evolution of urea synthesis in vertebrates: the piscine connection.
T. Mommsen and P. Walsh (1989)
Science 243, 72-75
   Abstract »    PDF »
Glutamine synthetase: assimilatory role in liver as related to urea retention in marine chondrichthyes.
J. Webb and G. Brown Jr (1980)
Science 208, 293-295
   Abstract »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)