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Defences against ammonia toxicity in tropical air-breathing fishes exposed to high concentrations of environmental ammonia: a review

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Abstract

In the tropics, air-breathing fishes can be exposed to environmental ammonia when stranded in puddles of water during the dry season, during a stay inside a burrow, or after agricultural fertilization. At low concentrations of environmental ammonia, NH3 excretion is impeded, as in aerial exposure, leading to the accumulation of endogenous ammonia. At high concentrations of environmental ammonia, which results in a reversed NH3 partial pressure gradient (ΔPNH3), there is retention of endogenous ammonia and uptake of exogenous ammonia. In this review, several tropical air-breathing fishes (giant mudskipper, African catfish, oriental weatherloach, swamp eel, four-eyed sleeper, abehaze and slender African lungfish), which can tolerate high environmental ammonia exposure, are used as examples to demonstrate how eight different adaptations can be involved in defence against ammonia toxicity. Four of these adaptations deal with ammonia toxicity at branchial and/or epithelial surfaces: (1) active excretion of NH4+; (2) lowering of environmental pH; (3) low NH3 permeability of epithelial surfaces; and (4) volatilization of NH3, while another four adaptations ameliorate ammonia toxicity at the cellular and subcellular levels: (5) high tolerance of ammonia at the cellular and subcellular levels; (6) reduction in ammonia production; (7) glutamine synthesis; and (8) urea synthesis. The responses of tropical air-breathing fishes to high environmental ammonia are determined apparently by behavioural adaptations and the nature of their natural environments.

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Abbreviations

CPS :

Carbamoyl phosphate synthetase

FAA :

Free amino acids

GDH :

Glutamate dehydrogenase

GS :

Glutamine synthetase

HEA :

High concentrations of environmental ammonia

α-KG :

α-ketoglutarate

N :

Nitrogen

NHE :

Na+/H+ exchanger

OUC :

Ornithine-urea cycle

ΔP NH3 :

NH3 Partial pressure gradient

pH env :

Environmental pH

TEP :

Transepithelial potential

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Road, 117543, Singapore , Republic of Singapore

    Y. K. Ip

  2. Natural Sciences, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, 637616, Singapore , Republic of Singapore

    S. F. Chew

  3. Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental-CIIMAR, Rua do Campo Alegre 823, 4150-180 , Porto, Portugal

    J. M. Wilson

  4. Department of Biology and Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Hong Kong, China

    D. J. Randall

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Correspondence to Y. K. Ip.

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Communicated by I.D. Hume

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Ip, Y.K., Chew, S.F., Wilson, J.M. et al. Defences against ammonia toxicity in tropical air-breathing fishes exposed to high concentrations of environmental ammonia: a review. J Comp Physiol B 174, 565–575 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-004-0445-1

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