THE TOTAL ASCORBIC-ACID CONTENT AND ITS VARIATION WITH SEASONAL AND NUTRITIONAL FACTORS IN SOME COMMON CIRRIPEDES

An investigation was made of the ascorbic acid content, its seasonal changes and the effect of starvation in several cirripedes. In Balanus balanoides (L.) and B. balanus (L.), there is an abrupt fall in ascorbic acid content which coincides with copulation; after fertilization, values are low until the animals begin feeding again in March-April. Seasonal changes are not so clearly marked in Chthamalus spp. In B. balanoides 60% of the ascorbic acid is lost in the 1st mo. of starvation, after which the rate of loss is reduced. In spite of different lengths of time for embryonic development, 77% of the original ascorbic acid content of the eggs is lost in both B. balanoides and B. balanus. Ascorbic acid has been demonstrated histologically in bodies of B. balanoides. Experiments with homogenates of isolated bodies, using additions of substrates and co-factors required for in vitro synthesis, suggest very strongly that the tissues are incapable of synthesizing ascorbic acid unless at a very low level. Addition of the microsomal enzymes from a rabbit liver preparation to a homogenate with substrate and co-factors gave ascorbic acid synthesis. This suggests a lesion analogous to that found in other organisms incapable of synthesizing ascorbic acid.