55-9 Sat Jan 2 The fate of tooth replacement in Pacific Lingcod (Ophiodon elongatus) with pulse-chase experiments Carr, EM*; Cohen, KE; Summers, AP; University of South Florida; Friday Harbor Labs, University of Washington; Friday Harbor Labs, University of Washington emilycarr1@mail.usf.edu
Tooth replacement is difficult to assess in polyphyodont vertebrates, but we used a pulse-chase technique to track tooth replacement rate and location in oral and pharyngeal jaws. Pacific Lingcod (Ophiodon elongatus) were immersed in Alizarin Red S dye for 12 hours, then maintained in flow-through seawater for 2-10 days, and finally put in calcein dye for 12 hours. We used fluorescence microscopy to reveal which teeth had both red and green dye and which had only green dye; fluorescent green teeth were newly replaced, and teeth with red or a combination of red and green fluorescence predated the Alizarin treatment. The average replacement rate across the dentary, premaxilla, vomer (palatine included), and upper and lower pharyngeal jaws was determined to be 3.6% per day. Replacement rate was significantly higher in the lower pharyngeal jaw, leading to the hypothesis that feeding was a driver of tooth replacement. However, when a similar 10 day pulse-chase experiment was repeated for two groups of feeding and non-feeding specimens there was no significant difference between the replacement rates. We found that lingcod teeth have a size and location fate; smaller teeth at a certain jaw position will not grow to replace larger teeth at another position. This was determined by the presence of large green teeth (new) next to large red teeth (old) in one position of the jaw, while other red teeth in a different position remained small. We also found increased rates of replacement at the anterior of the lower pharyngeal jaw relative to the posterior. This leads to an appearance of more wear on posterior teeth. We propose that teeth are not moving from front to back on pharyngeal jaws, but the appearance of this motion is due to differential replacement.