Chemical composition of newborn larvae, muscle larvae and adult Trichinella spiralis

Michael W. Kilgore, George L. Stewart, Marjorie Lou

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Chemical composition of newborn larvae, muscle larvae and adult Trichinella spiralis. International Journal for Parasitology 16: 455-460. The chemical composition of newborn larvae (NBL), muscle larvae (ML) and 4-day-old and 7-day-old adult Trichinella spiralis were compared. Total protein constituted 44.1% of the dry wt of ML, 36.9% of NBL and 30.3% of 7-day-old adult worms. Glycogen content was 16.1% of worm dry wt in ML and 7.8% in NBL and 7.2% of worm dry wt in adults. Trehalose content was 5.2% in NBL, 8.3% in ML and 8.7% in 7-day-old adult worms. Significantly lower levels of trehalose and glycogen were found in 4-day-old worms than were present in 7-day-old worms. Free glucose amounted to 0.1% of dry wt in ML, 0.37% in NBL and 0.87% in 7-day-old adults. RNA accounted for 3.5% of the dry wt of ML, 3.2% of the dry wt of 7-day-old adults and 1.1% of the dry wt of NBL. The DNA content of NBL was 0.23% of worm dry wt, in ML 0.48% of worm dry wt and 0.51% of worm dry wt in 7-day-old adults. The three parasite stages examined agreed closely with regard to types of amino acids in the free pool. Exceptions were as follows: NBL lacked taurine which both adults and ML contained; adults lacked methionine which both ML and NBL contained; and, trace amounts of cysteine were present in ML but absent from the other two stages.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)455-460
Number of pages6
JournalInternational Journal for Parasitology
Volume16
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1986

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Acknowledgements-We gratefully acknowledge the support for this study provided by grants AI 15704 and AI 118913 from the National Institutes of Health.

Keywords

  • DNA
  • RNA
  • Trichinella spiralis
  • free glucose
  • free pool amino acids
  • glycogen
  • muscle larvae
  • newborn larvae, adult worms
  • protein
  • trehalose

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Parasitology
  • Infectious Diseases

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