Re-examination of the contributions of aerobic and anaerobic energy production during swimming in the Bivalve mollusc Limaria fragilis (Family Limidae)

Abstract

The file shell L. fragilis displays a slow sustained style of swimming indicative of basically aerobic mechanisms of ATP production. Although it had been proposed that anaerobic glycolysis and arginine phosphate did not contribute to powering swimming, the discovery of high activity of arginine kinase and significant activities of strombine and alanopine dehydrogenases in the adductor muscle led to a reexamination of the relative contributions of aerobic metabolism, anaerobic glycolysis and arginine phosphate during swimming. It was found that, whereas aerobic metabolism predominates with only a minor contribution from anaerobic glycolysis, arginine phosphate supplied up to 23% of the ATP used during 5 min of sustained swimming.