Publication Date:
2018-04-13
Description:
In vivo confocal Raman microscopy (CRM), polarized light microscopy and
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to determine if a
significant amount of amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) exists within
larval shells of Baltic mytilid mussels (Mytilus edulis-like) and whether the
amount of ACC varies during larval development. No evidence for ACC
was found from the onset of shell deposition at 21 h post-fertilization
(hpf) until 48 hpf. Larval Mytilus shells were crystalline from 21 hpf
onwards and exhibited CRM and FTIR peaks characteristic of aragonite.
Prior to shell deposition at 21 hpf, no evidence for carbonates was observed
through in vivo CRM.We further analysed the composition of larval shells in
three other bivalve species, Mercenaria mercenaria, Crassostrea gigas and
Crassostrea virginica and observed no evidence for ACC, which is in contrast
to previous work on the same species. Our findings indicate that larval
bivalve shells are composed of crystalline aragonite and we demonstrate
that conflicting results are related to sub-optimal measurements and misinterpretation
of CRM spectra. Our results demonstrate that the common
perception that ACC generally occurs as a stable and abundant precursor
during larval bivalve calcification needs to be critically reviewed.
Repository Name:
EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
Type:
Article
,
isiRev
Format:
application/pdf
