. The Biological bulletin. Biology; Zoology; Biology; Marine Biology. 342 A. M. SMITH AND M. C. MORIN. Trail Glue Figure 1. Comparison of the protein and carbohydrate content by dry weight of the two forms of periwinkle mucus. Six to ten pooled samples of each type were tested, with each pooled sample containing mucus from about 10 snails. ± (Mean ± SD. n = 4). The carbohydrate concentration was ± (» = 5). The remainder of the dried sample was presumably inor- ganic material left over from evaporating seawater. Previ- ous research on other marine mucous secretions found
. The Biological bulletin. Biology; Zoology; Biology; Marine Biology. 342 A. M. SMITH AND M. C. MORIN. Trail Glue Figure 1. Comparison of the protein and carbohydrate content by dry weight of the two forms of periwinkle mucus. Six to ten pooled samples of each type were tested, with each pooled sample containing mucus from about 10 snails. ± (Mean ± SD. n = 4). The carbohydrate concentration was ± (» = 5). The remainder of the dried sample was presumably inor- ganic material left over from evaporating seawater. Previ- ous research on other marine mucous secretions found that roughly 50% of the dry weight was inorganic residue (Con- nor, 1986: Davies el ai, 1990). This figure can also be estimated from the percentage of inorganic salts in seawater (, Schmidt-Nielsen. 1990): for a typical marine mu- cus containing 96%-98% water, we would predict that inorganic material would make up 46%-64% of the dry weight. The protein concentration is likely to be an underesti- mate. Since reducing agents could not be used in the protein assay, the solubilization was not total. The dried insoluble material amounted to 13% ± 7% of the total dry weight (n = 6), with similar results for trail mucus and glue. This undissolved material would not be detected by the assay. This eiTor would only be partially offset by the slight increase in absorbance due to carbohydrate reacting with the assay. The interference from carbohydrates probably led to the protein values being as much as one percentage point above their actual value (, a calculated value of 11% may have actually been 10%, and 4% may have been 3%). The value for carbohydrate content is also an underesti- mate. This is primarily due to differential sensitivity of the orcinol assay to different sugar derivatives. The calibration was based on glucose, so it should reflect the neutral sugars accurately. There were no significant differences between the assay's response to glucose and its response
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