A sex-specific metabolite identified in a marine invertebrate utilizing phosphorus-31 nuclear magnetic resonance.

ABSTRACT: Hormone level differences are generally accepted as the primary cause for sexual dimorphism in animal and human development. Levels of low molecular weight metabolites also differ between men and women in circulating amino acids, lipids and carbohydrates and within brain tissue. While investigating the metabolism of blue crab tissues using Phosphorus-31 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, we discovered that only the male blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) contained a phosphorus compound with a chemical shift well separated from the expected phosphate compounds. Spectra obtained from male gills were readily differentiated from female gill spectra. Analysis from six years of data from male and female crabs documented that the sex-specificity of this metabolite was normal for this species. Microscopic a

SUBMITTER: Kleps RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1940318 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature