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JOURNAL OF PLANKTON RESEARCH | VOLUME 16 | NUMBER 8 | PAGES 961-976 | 1994
© Oxford University Press

research-article

A radiochemical method for secondary production in planktonic Crustacea based on rate of chitin synthesis

J.C. Roff, J.T. Kroetsch and A.J. Clarke1

1Department of Microbiology, University of Guelph Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada Department of Zoology, University of Guelph Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada

Received on June 10, 1993; accepted on March 14, 1994 A radiochemical method has been developed to measure the growth rate of aquatic Crustacea, based on the rate of incorporation of [14C]NAG, from [14C)UDP-NAG, into the chitinous exoskeleton. Daphnia was used as the test organism. The specific activity (d.p.m. nmol–1) of the [14C]UDP-NAG precursor pool increased linearly with time, as did the rate of [14C]NAG incorporation into exoskeletons. Growth rates were calculated in a manner analogous to that used in the 14C ‘primary production’ technique. Comparison of growth rates derived from the [14C]chitin synthesis method to those obtained by independent conventional means showed agreement to within 5%. This is the first radiochemical method to accurately measure the growth rate in a metazoan. It can potentially be applied to field populations of any organisms which synthesize chitin.


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