Juvenile salmon migrating from freshwater to the marine environment confront a marked change in environmental osmolality. Using differential display of mRNA expression, we cloned a 1.9-kb cDNA upregulated in isolated tissues of salmon exposed to the hyperosmotic stress associated with transition to the dehydrating marine environment. The cDNA codes for a 21-kDa protein, salmon hyperosmotic prot...

Similar to mammalian proximal tubular cells, H(+)-ATPase rich (HR) cells in zebrafish skin and gills are also responsible for Na(+) uptake and acid secretion functions. However, the basolateral transport pathways in HR cells are still unclear. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis if there are specific slc4 members involved in basolateral ion transport pathways in HR cells. Fourteen is...

Compared to terrestrial animals, fish have to cope with more-challenging osmotic and ionic gradients from aquatic environments with diverse salinities, ion compositions, and pH values. Gills, a unique and highly studied organ in research on fish osmoregulation and ionoregulation, provide an excellent model to study the regulatory mechanisms of ion transport. The present review introduces and di...

This study provided an initial characterization of Na(+) uptake in saline freshwater by the endangered pupfish, Cyprinodon macularius. This species occurs only in several saline water systems in the southwestern USA and northern Mexico, where salinity is largely controlled by water-management practices. Consequently, understanding the osmoregulatory capacity of this species is important for the...

The present study tested the hypothesis that zebrafish (Danio rerio) aquaporin-1a1 (AQP1a1) serves as a multi-functional channel for the transfer of the small gaseous molecules, CO2 and ammonia, as well as water, across biological membranes. Zebrafish embryos were microinjected with a translation-blocking morpholino oligonucleotide targeted to AQP1a1. Knockdown of AQP1a1 significantly reduced r...

It is concluded that Ca2+ transport across the basolateral membranes of the ionocytes in killifish skin is mediated for the major part by a Na+/Ca2+-exchange mechanism that is driven by the (transmembrane) Na+ gradient established by N a+/K +-ATPase. The conclu­ sion is based, firstly, on the biochemical evidence for the presence of a Na+/Ca2+-exchanger next to the Ca2+ATPase in the basolateral...

The Pancrustacea, which include crustaceans and hexapods, have successfully colonized marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats. While members of the class Malacostraca (e.g., crabs, shrimp) often display immense osmoregulatory capacities, more basally branching crustaceans (e.g., copepods, branchiopods) tend to possess less-specialized osmoregulatory structures that have been poorly charact...