Behavioural responses of glass eels of Anguilla anguilla to non‐protein amino acids

• Published in: Journal of Fish Biology
• Main Authors: Sola, C., Tongiorgi, P.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1998
• Subjects: Anguilla anguilla
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8649.1998.tb00246.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1095-8649.1998.tb00246.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1095-8649.1998.tb00246.x

Glass eels reacted chemotactically towards five non‐protein constitutional amino acids, D‐glutamine, D‐asparagine, D‐glutamic acid, D‐alanine and β ‐alanine, dissolved in fresh water or salt water, with behavioural thresholds ranging from 10 ‐9 M for the most effective (D‐ and β ;‐alanine) to 10 ‐7 M for the other three. With the exception of D‐asparagine in fresh water and D‐alanine at concentrations ≥10 ‐7 M, these amino acids were strong attractants. The results are compared with previous findings on the respective L‐isomers. The non‐protein amino acids may influence behaviour in the search for food and the recognition of conspecifics.