Abstract
We used transmission and scanning electron microscopy and an antibody to the inner mitochondrial membrane to study the presence and localisation of mitochondria-rich cells in the gills of two Antarctic fishes, Chionodraco hamatus (Channichthyidae) and Trematomus bernacchii (Nototheniidae). The general morphology of the gills in the two species was slightly different: in T. bernacchii the filament and secondary lamellae were short and thicker, and mitochondria-rich cells were less numerous than in C. hamatus. In the two species the mitochondria-rich cells, distributed in the secondary and primary epithelium, were of the same morphological type, similar to the α-chloride cells of temperate seawater teleosts. The study was carried out to compare the mitochondria-rich cells of Antarctic fishes to the chloride cells of temperate marine teleosts. Immunolocalisation, using a specific antibody to the α-subunit of Na+/K+-ATPase, was observed in numerous epithelial cells in the interlamellar epithelium and on the secondary lamellae, suggesting an active sodium chloride secretion.
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Accepted: 16 October 1999
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Masini, M., Sturla, M., Prato, P. et al. Mitochondria-rich cells in Antarctic fish gills. Polar Biol 23, 250–256 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s003000050441
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s003000050441