Abstract
This study reports the presence of high concentrations of free D-aspartic acid (D-Asp) in the circumoesophageal ganglia of the opisthobranch mollusc Aplysia fasciata . D-Asp was discovered using specific methods that employ Octopus D-aspartate oxidase and hog kidney D-amino acid oxidase to measure D-Asp levels. The concentration of D-Asp was 0.281 μmol/g wet tissue weight, which was 8.3% of the total free aspartic acid (D and L forms) present. No other free D-amino acids that were oxidised by D-amino acid oxidase were detected. To our knowledge the only molluscs that have previously been shown to have D-Asp within their nervous tissue are the cephalopods Octopus vulgaris , Loligo vulgaris and Sepia officinalis . In these, as in A . fasciata , no other D-amino acids were detected within the nervous tissue. The fact that free D-Asp occurs specifically in the nervous tissue of the above molluscs suggests that it may have a neurological function that is yet to be described.
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