ACCUMULATION OF FREE FATTY ACIDS FROM SEA WATER BY MARINE INVERTEBRATES

¹ Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California 92664

1. It has been established that representative marine annelids can accumulate and metabolize dissolved free fatty acids.

2. Net uptake of fatty acid from dilute solution by the polychaete Stauronereis rudolphi was confirmed by the loss of total higher fatty acids from the medium.

3. Uptake takes place across the body wall by a mediated transport system having kinetic properties analagous to those of enzyme-catalyzed reactions, including saturation at high substrate concentrations and competitive inhibition.

4. At concentrations above 5µmoles/l, palmitic and oleic acids are taken up at anomalously high rates probably due to the formation of micelles or molecular aggregates.

5. Dissolved free fatty acids occurring in Los Angeles Harbor sea water were extracted and analyzed by thin-layer and gas chromatography.

6. Although the K_s's of higher fatty acid transport are low, allowing efficient uptake from low concentrations, the levels of free fatty acids found in the natural environment are probably too low for uptake to support more than a few per cent of the organisms's metabolism.

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