Bone resorption and body reorganization during maturation induce maternal transfer of toxic metals in anguillid eels.

ABSTRACT: During their once-in-a-lifetime transoceanic spawning migration, anguillid eels do not feed, instead rely on energy stores to fuel the demands of locomotion and reproduction while they reorganize their bodies by depleting body reserves and building up gonadal tissue. Here we show how the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) breaks down its skeleton to redistribute phosphorus and calcium from hard to soft tissues during its sexual development. Using multiple analytical and imaging techniques, we characterize the spatial and temporal degradation of the skeletal framework from initial to final gonadal maturation and use elemental mass ratios in bone, muscle, liver, and gonadal tissue to determine the fluxes and fates of selected minerals and metals in the eels' bodies. We find that bone lo

SUBMITTER: Freese M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6561237 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature