Biogenic Amines and their Metabolites in Homogenates of the Vinegar Eelworm, Turbatrix aceti.

Biogenic amines serve as neurotransmitters in vertebrates and insects, and their occurrence has been reported in a number of other species of invertebrates. Among helminths, they have been isolated from the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica (9) and the nematodes Ascar# lumbricoides (10), Ascaridia galli (10), Nippostrongylus brasiliensis (1), Litomosoides carinii (12), Caenorhabditis elegans (8), and Trichostrongylus colubriformis (6,7). Adults of T. colubriformis exhibited ovipositional and ingestive responses to histamine, dopamine, octopamine, "r-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and serotonin in vitro (2,3). Ward et al. (14) reported chemotactic responses by males ofN. brasiliensis to several biogenic amines during bioassays, and Sulston et al. (13) identified dopaminergic neurons in C. elegans and Ascaris lumbricoides cytochemically via formaldehyde fluorescence. These compounds may have functions in addition to their putative ones as neurotransmitters, such as the triggering and regulation of cell divisions in early ontogenesis (5). Our interest in them is associated with research on nematode behavior and the environmental stimuli to which parasitic nematodes respond in order to complete their life cycles.