Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 30 October 1981:
Vol. 214. no. 4520, pp. 559 - 561
DOI: 10.1126/science.214.4520.559
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Functional Characteristics of the Blood of the Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Brachyuran Crab

ALISSA J. ARP 1 and JAMES J. CHILDRESS 1

1 Oceanic Biology Group, Marine Science Institute, Department of Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106

Hemocyanin in the whole blood of the hydrothermal vent brachyuran crab, Bythograea thermydron, has a moderate oxygen affinity (P50 = 6.6 millimeters of mercury at 2.6° C; pH 7.5), which unlike that of other hemocyanins is independent of temperature over the range 2° to 30°C; carbon dioxide and pH have independent effects on the oxygen affinity of this pigment. The pH effect on affinity is moderate (Dgrlog P50/DgrpH = –0.34), whereas increased carbon dioxide, which can act both directly and by changing pH, has a much larger effect (Dgrlog P50/DgrpH = –0.81). This blood has a moderately high degree of cooperativity (Hill cooperativity coefficient, n, was 2.8) and a large oxygen-carrying capacity for a crustacean (4.5 milliliters of oxygen per 100 milliliters of blood). These properties characterize an oxygen transport system whose function appears to be largely independent of the wide range of environmental conditions encountered around the vents.

Submitted on April 27, 1981
Revised on July 7, 1981


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Thermal Vent Clam (Calyptogena magnifica) Hemoglobin.
R. C. TERWILLIGER, N. B. TERWILLIGER, and A. ARP (1983)
Science 219, 981-983
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

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