Abstract
The fixing of CO2 is an important metabolic process for many organisms. In the anisakid nematodes, CO2 has been shown to be necessary for their development, at least in vitro. The presence of CO2 stimulates the moulting (M3) of the larvae from the third (L3) to the fourth (L4) stage and prolongs the survival, at least, in vitro. We determined the activity of CO2-fixing enzymes, common to many organisms, in two anisakids: Anisakis simplex, a parasite of cetaceans, and Hysterothylacium aduncum, a parasite of fish. Although no activity was detected for pyruvate carboxylase or carboxylating-malic enzyme, we detected phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) activity. In A. simplex, PEPCK was clearly higher than that of PEPC throughout the moulting process studied. In H. aduncum, although the activity of both enzymes was of similar magnitude, they showed different behaviour; PEPCK activity decreased after the moulting to L4, PEPC activity increased so that the ratio PEPCK/PEPC activity decreased from 1.90 before moulting to 0.59 after.
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Acknowledgements
This work has been funded by the Spanish grants PB98-1312 from the DGESIC and ACU01-027 from the INIA. D.M. is recipient of a predoctoral fellowship from Consejería de Agricultura y Pesca, Junta de Andalucía (Spain). Translation into English was by Mr Robert Abrahams. All the experiments described comply with the current laws of the country in which the experiments were performed.
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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00436-005-1489-1
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Iglesias, L., Malagón, D., Valero, A. et al. CO2-fixing enzymes during moulting from third larval to fourth larval stage of Anisakis simplex and Hysterothylacium aduncum (Nematoda: Anisakidae). Parasitol Res 96, 212–215 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-005-1342-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-005-1342-6