Abstract
AbstractThe albumen gland portion of the female reproductive tract in pulmonate gastropods produces two metabolically allied polysaccharides, galactogen and glycogen. Galactogen accumulates in preparation for summer egg‐laying, glycogen in preparation for winter hibernation. Synthesis of each polysaccharide may be under neurohormonal control, therefore an organ culture bioassay for such neurosecretory influences was devised.This publication reports: (1) the composition of a chemically defined medium which will sustain both the albumen gland and brain of Helix pomatia in organ culture; (2) a method for the separation of galactogen from glycogen in aqueous solution: glycogen is co‐precipitated with concanavalin‐A while galactogen remains in solution; and (3) activation of galactogen synthesis within albumen gland explants of a hibernating Helix, when this gland is cultured in the presence of a brain taken from a reproductively active snail.
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