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The role of carbon dioxide in the metabolism of adult Haemonchus contortus, in vitro

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

P. F. V. Ward  and
N. S. Huskisson
P. F. V. Ward
Affiliation:
Biochemistry Department, A.R.G. Institute of Animal Physiology, Babraham, Cambridge, CB2 4AT
N. S. Huskisson
Affiliation:
Biochemistry Department, A.R.G. Institute of Animal Physiology, Babraham, Cambridge, CB2 4AT
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Summary

Adult Haemonchus contortus worms simultaneously excrete and fix CO2. Their initial content of CO2 was measured as 4·55 μmoles/100mg wet weight and their excretion rate in air as 1 μmole/100 mg wet weight/h for at least 4 h. When the worms were incubated either aerobically or anaerobically with 14CO2 most of the metabolized radioactivity was associated with propan-1-ol and propionate but small amounts were found in succinate and lactate. No radioactivity was associated with ethanol or acetate, two major catabolites of glucose. Stepwise degradation of the metabolized radioactive propanol and propionate showed that all the radioactivity in both compounds was associated with carbon atom no. 1. These results show that H. contortus has much in common with the anaerobic energy metabolism of Ascaris lumbricoides but they are not inconsistent with the utilization of the tricarboxylic acid cycle by the worm. H. contortus worms were found to metabolize their excretory products. When they were incubated with either [2,3-14C]succinate or [2-14C]acetate, 14CO2 was excreted under aerobic but not under anaerobic conditions. These results are consistent with a pathway similar to that used by Ascaris operating alone under anaerobic conditions and together with the tricarboxylic acid cycle under aerobic conditions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 80 , Issue 1 , February 1980 , pp. 73 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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