Abstract
The uptake of amino acids and glucose dissolved in sea water by different parts of common mussels (Mytilus edulis, L.) is studied from the first minutes up to 1 week. Autoradiography and donble countings on14C and2H labelled samples show that, in the first hour, the gills and mantle can concentrate several hundred times the dissolved nutritive molecules from very dilute solutions, whereas the digestive tract is not involved significantly during the first hours. An important α-amylasic activity has been detected in the gills. The gill epithelium shows a strong positive reaction with mixtures used for the histochemical detection of chymotrypsin. This suggests that the digestion of small particles as well as the absorption of dissolved food might be initiated on the surface of the palleal-gill areas, and completed later in the “hepatic” caeca.
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