Speed-mapping of arsenic distribution in the tissues of earthworms inhabiting arsenious soil.

✍ Scribed by A.J. Morgan; C. Winters; A. Yarwood

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 249 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1065-6995
• DOI: 10.1006/cbir.1994.1130

✦ Synopsis

ABSTRACT

We have examined the distribution of arsenic in the metal‐sequestering chloragogenous tissue of a population of the earthworm, Lumbricus rubellus, exposed to the metalloid in its natural environment. The localization technique was qualitative digital X‐ray speed mapping (2 minute total acquisition time) of fresh air dried tissue smears. Arsenic was located in association with sulphur in a discrete chloragocytic compartment; it was not detected in the phosphate‐rich chloragosome granules. In earthworm tissues arsenic was distributed according to its sulphydryl‐seeking trivalent form, not as the phosphate‐resembling pentavalent form.