Ultrastructural features of chloride cells in the gill epithelium of the atlantic salmon,Salmo salar, and their modifications during smoltification

To elucidate the ultrastructural modifications of the gill epithelium during smoltification, gills of the Atlantic salmon (Salmon salar ) were examined by electron microscopy at three stages of this process: parrs, freshwater smolts, and seawater smolts. In the gill epithelium of parrs, there were t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American Journal of Anatomy
Main Authors: Pisam, M., Prunet, Patrick, Boeuf, G., Rambourg
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 1988
Subjects:
Online Access:http://prodinra.inra.fr/ft/3A660E59-82A3-4498-BF11-A398C7EA24D2
http://prodinra.inra.fr/record/409791
https://doi.org/10.1002/aja.1001830306
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Summary:To elucidate the ultrastructural modifications of the gill epithelium during smoltification, gills of the Atlantic salmon (Salmon salar ) were examined by electron microscopy at three stages of this process: parrs, freshwater smolts, and seawater smolts. In the gill epithelium of parrs, there were two types of chloride cells. In freshwater smolts, the large chloride cells formed 95% of the chloride-cell population. It was concluded that the Atlantic salmon develops in fresh water most of the ultrastructural modifications of the gill epithelium which in most euryhaline fish are triggered by exposure to seawater. The effective transfer into seawater would act only as a final stimulus to achieve some adequacy between the freshwater smolt and its new environment.