EFFECTS OF MAINTENANCE TEMPERATURE ON THE AMINO ACID CONTENT OF BIOMPHALARIA GLABRATA SNAILS AS DETERMINED BY HIGH PERFORMANCE THIN-LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY-DENSITOMETRY

摘要

High performance thin-layer chromatography-densitomelry (HPTLC-Dens) was used to determine the free-pool amino acid content of whole bodies of sexually immature Biomphalaria glah-rata snails maintained at 15, 24, or 3 PC. Amino acids were extracted from whole snail bodies in 70:30 ethanol-water and separated on either silica gel or cellulose stationary phases with 2-butanol-pyridine-glacial acetic acid-deionized water (39:34:10:26) or 2-bulanol-pyridine-25% ammonia-deionized water (39:34:10:26). Amino acid zones were visualized by postchromato-graphic derivatization with ninhydrin and quantified by visible mode slit-scanning densitometry at 610 nm. Comigration of bands with amino acid stock solutions confirmed the presence of ala-nine, arginine, asparagine, aspartale, glutamate, glulamine, glycine, lysine, threonine, and val-ine in all samples. Multiple t-test comparisons showed a significant increase in valine in snails maintained at 15癈 compared to those at 3 PC at 3 weeks post-treatment (P < 0.015). This finding could suggest that there are inherent variations in the metabolism of snails cultured at different temperatures.