The histochemical demonstration of myofibrillar adenosine triphosphatase activity in fish muscle

Abstract

A technique for the demonstration of myofibrillar adenosine triphosphatase activity (ATPase) used for mammalian muscle has been modified to suit fish muscle. The mammalian method involves selectively inhibiting fiber types by preincubation at either alkaline (pH 10.4) or acid (pH 4.3) pH before incubation for myofibrillar (ATPase) activity. Fish muscle fibers were found to be generally inactivated under these conditions. Preincubation at an acid pH was found to be unsuitable for fish muscle because of the indiscriminate inactivation of the fibers. The effects of preincubating at pH 10.4 and incubating tissue sections for different time periods and at different pH's and temperatures have been investigated. A differential staining of fiber types correlated with biochemical data on myofibrillar ATPase for red and white muscles was obtained by preincubating sections for short periods (1–2 min) at pH 10.4. Under these conditions the intermediately positioned pink fibers were found to stain similarly to the white fibers of high myofibrillar ATPase activity. An investigation has been made of the qualitative distribution of fiber types in the myotomal muscle of live teleost species: coalfish (Gadus virens), grey mullet (Mugil cephalus), crucian carp (Carassius carassius), black mollie (Mollienesia sp), and glassfish (Chanda ranga). The pink fibers were found to be abundant in all the species examined with the exception of the glassfish.

Muscle growth in Antarctic and Subantarctic notothenioid fishes

“…The same kind of segregation has been described for many other teleost species (Johnston et al, 1974;Smialowska and Kilarsky, 1981) and is strongly related to the needs for swimming. The different fibre types are specialised for working at different swimming speeds (Bone et al, 1978;Johnston and Altringham, 1991).…”

“…The order of inactivation of the different fibre types with alkaline preincubation in notothenioids was fast > intermediate > slow (Fig. 6), different to the order found for temperate species which is slow > fast > intermediate (Johnston et al, 1974). Therefore, in general the pHsensitivity of the ATPase activity of fast muscle fibres in Antarctic and Subantarctic notothenioids was similar to that for slow muscle fibres in temperate or tropical species.…”

Characterisation of the swimming muscles of two Subantarctic notothenoids

“…Sections were stained for succinic dehydrogenase activity (SDHase) in the dark following Nachlas et al (1957). Sections were stained for myosin ATPase activity without and with preincubation at acid (30s to 5 min; pH 4.3) or alkaline pH (30s to 5 min; pH 9.6, 10.2, 10.4 and 10.6) (Johnston et al, 1974).…”

“…Histochemical techniques have been used to characterize muscle fibres in teleost fish from tropical, temperate and polar waters (Boddeke et al, 1959;Johnston et al, 1974;Hoyle et al, 1986;Mascarello et al, 1986;Brooks and Johnston, 1993). Four different fibre types have been found in many species: tonic (SDF, small diameter fibres), red, intermediate (pink) and white (Davison, 1983;te Kronnie et al, 1983;Mascarello et al, 1986;Gill et al, 1989;Higgins, 1990;Calvo and Johnston, 1992).…”

Ultracytochemical localization of Na+, K+-activated ATPase in the oocytes of Heterandria formosa Agassiz, 1853 (Pisces, Poeciliidae)

“…Many precipitates were found on the membranes surrounding the yolk elements and the cortical granules ( fig. c, arrows) Philpott, 1979), as well as in the pseudobranches (Dendy et al, 1973) and the muscular system (Dahl and Nicolaysen, 1971 ;Nag, 1972 ;Johnston et al, 1972Johnston et al, , 1974 (Arndt, 1956(Arndt, , 1960Erhardt, 1976';Riehl and Schulte, 1977).…”