Amino acids and reef aquarium: Arginine
- Arginine is essential amino acid for crustaceans, it cannot be synthesized by themselves (Cowey and Forster 1971).
- Arginine causes feeding response (including digestion) in stony coral but has a significantly delayed response (1-2 minutes). Activity is confined to the mouth region (Lehman and Porter 1973)
- Arginine is a major contributor to copepod and mysid free amino acid pools (Lehman and Porter 1973)
- Arginine is recycled mainly through heterotrophic organisms and not directly used by phytoplankton in pelagic environment (Hollibaugh 1976)
- Arginine uptake and marine by heterotrophic bacteria is fast and efficient (Iturriaga and Zsolnay 1981)
- Arginine uptake system is shared with Lysine in marine diatom (Flynn and Syrett 1986)
- Optimum growth rate in a shrimp was obtained with Arginine concentration of 25 g/kg. Arginine was supplied in a microencapsulated form. Arginine in crystalline form is not usable to shrimp. (Chen et al. 1992)
- Arginine can not be synthesized by fish, molluscs or nematodes and has weak signal in corals (Fitzgerald and Szmant 1997)
- In Pocillopora damicornis Arginine uptake is very high (Hoeegh-Guldberg and Williamson 1999)
- Arginine is translocated from zooxanthellae to host in Tridacna gigas (Shepherd et al. 1999)
- Arginine can make up to 9% of the total DFAA in seawater (Pan and Wang 2004)
- Mussels have high affinity for dissolved Arginine but it’s uptake is slow (Pan and Wang 2004)
- Arginine is an important part of sponge silica uptake and thus spicule formation (Perovic-Ottstadt et al. 2005)
References:
Chen et al. Quantification of arginine requirements of juvenile marine shrimp, Penaeus monodon, using microencapsulated arginine. Marine Biology (1992)
Fitzgerald and Szmant. Biosynthesis of ‘essential’ amino acids by scleractinian corals. The Biochemical journal (1997) vol. 322 ( Pt 1) pp. 213-21
Flynn and Syrett. Characteristics of the uptake system for L-lysine and L-arginine in Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Marine Biology (1986)
Hoeegh-Guldberg and Williamson. Availability of two forms of dissolved nitrogen to the coral Pocillopora damicornis and its symbiotic zooxanthellae. Marine Biology (1999)
Hollibaugh. The Biological Degradation of Arginine and Glutamic Acid in Seawater in Relation to the Growth of Phytoplankton. Marine Biology (1976)
Iturriaga and Zsolnay. Transformation of some dissolved organic compounds by a natural heterotrophic population. Marine Biology (1981)
Lehman and Porter. Chemical Activation Of Feeding In The Caribbean Reef-Building Coral Montastrea Cavernosa. The Biological Bulletin (1973)
Pan and Wang. Differential uptake of dissolved and particulate organic carbon by the marine mussel Perna viridis. Limnology and oceanography (2004)
Perovic-Ottstadt et al. Arginine kinase in the demosponge Suberites domuncula: regulation of its expression and catalytic activity by silicic acid. Journal of Experimental Biology (2005)
Shepherd et al. Ammonium, but not nitrate, stimulates an increase in glutamine concentration in the haemolymph of Tridacna gigas. Marine Biology (1999)