Abstract
That some annelids exhibit peculiarities in the behavior of their phosphagen complex has been demonstrated by Arnold and Luck 1 and by Needham, Needham, Baldwin and Yudkin. 2 This note extends previous observations.
Early in our work on annelid muscle extracts clarified with basic lead acetate we noted positive Jaffe reactions in the lead-free filtrates. More important was the steady increase in the amount of color produced as the filtrates were evaporated at pH 6.0 at temperatures below 100°C. Thus in Nereis brandti muscle extract the total “apparent creatinine” values increased 59% when the volume of the extract was reduced to one-fourth the original. Extracts of Audouinia spirabranchus muscle gave smaller increases in color production. That the substance responsible for the positive Jaffe reaction was not creatinine itself was shown by negative Weyl and Salkowski tests. The substance could, however, be precipitated by phosphotungstic acid and recovered in the fraction insoluble in absolute methanol. Arginine phosphotungstate is fairly soluble in this reagent, while creatinine phosphotungstate is but slightly soluble. 3 The methanol insoluble phosphotungstate on removal of the precipitant yielded a filtrate giving positive Jaffe and Sakaguchi reactions; attempts to isolate the substance or substances responsible were not successful.
Determinations of labile phosphate in Audouinia spirabranchus, Nereis brand ti, Glycera rugosa, and also in Urechis caupo indicated a slowly-hydrolyzable phosphate, unstable in acid at room temperature. Glycera rugosa, the most active species, gave the highest values for this labile phosphorus.
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