Abstract
The occurrence of chitinase in the stomach contents of Enophrys bison and Platichthys stellatus was investigated. The highest chitinase activity and the greatest percentage of chitinoclastic bacteria in relation to the total bacterial flora were associated with fish whose stomach content was composed primarily of chitinous animals. Stomach contents lacking visible chitin possessed low or no detectable levels of chitinase activity and few chitinoclastic bacteria. Juvenile E. bison treated with chloramphenicol to remove their indigenous bacterial flora had no detectable level of chitinase in their stomach contents while non-treated juveniles showed inducible chitinase activity, indicating the bacterial origin for the chitinase.
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Communicated by J.S. Pearse, Santa Cruz
Published as Technical Paper No. 4435, Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station. This research was supported by NIH training grant 5TO1 GM-00704 and NSF grant DES73-06611 AO2.
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Goodrich, T.D., Morita, R.Y. Bacterial chitinase in the stomachs of marine fishes from Yaquina Bay, Oregon, USA. Mar. Biol. 41, 355–360 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00389101
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00389101