Meeting Abstract

P1.127  Sunday, Jan. 4  Identification and Distribution of Octopamine in Ganglia and Innervated Organs of Crassostrea virginica SAMUEL, D.*; LAGARES, E.; CARROLL, M.A.; CATAPANE, E.J.; Medgar Evers College dtalented18@aol.com

Octopamine is a biogenic amine which was first identified in the octopus. It has been well studied in arthropods and a few gastropods serving as a neurotransmitter and hormone. Octopamine has been rarely reported in bivalves and not in Crassostrea virginica. We utilized HPLC to determine if octopamine is present in ganglia and tissues of C. virginica. Biogenic amines were measured by HPLC techniques with fluorescence detection. We used an isocratic, ion-pairing HPLC analysis with fluorescence detection to resolved norepinephrine, epinephrine, octopamine, dopamine and serotonin. Cerebral ganglia, visceral ganglia, gill and palps were dissected, weighed, homogenized, centrifuged, filtered and injected into a Beckman HPLC system with a Phenomenex Gemini 5µ C18 column and a Jasco FP 2020 Spectrofluorometer. The mobile phase was 50 mM acetate buffer (pH 4.7) with 1 mM EDTA, 1.1 mM SOS and methanol (85%/15%, v/v). Octopamine was found in ng amounts in gill, palps, cerebral ganglia and visceral ganglia. Endogenous octopamine levels were increase when animals were treated with tyramine, an octopamine precursor. The octopamine peak was verified by injecting samples spiked with standard octopamine. The study identifies octopamine in the nervous system and innervated organs of C. virginica. The physiological role of octopamine in C. virginica is not known as yet and should be explored. This work was supported in part by grants 2R25GM06003-05 of the Bridge Program of NIGMS, 0516041071 of NYSDOE, 0622197 of the DUE Program of NSF and 0420359 of the MRI Program of NSF.