Vitro culture of axe-head glochidia in pink heelsplitter Potamilus alatus and mechanism of its high host specialists.

The basal media M199 or MEM was utilized in the classical method of vitro culture of glochidia where 1-5% CO2 was required to maintain stable physiological pH for completion of non-parasitic metamorphosis. The classical method encounters a great challenge to those glochidia which undergo development of visceral tissue but significantly increase in size during metamorphosis. The improved in vitro culture techniques and classical methods were firstly compared for non-parasitic metamorphosis and development of glochidia in pink heelsplitter.

The Complete Maternally and Paternally Inherited Mitochondrial Genomes of a Freshwater Mussel Potamilus alatus (Bivalvia: Unionidae).

Doubly uniparental inheritance (DUI) of mitochondrial DNA, found only in some bivalve families and characterized by the existence of gender-associated mtDNA lineages that are inherited through males (M-type) or females (F-type), is one of the very few exceptions to the general rule of strict maternal mtDNA inheritance in animals. M-type sequences are often undetected and hence still underrepresented in the GenBank, which hinders the progress of the understanding of the DUI phenomenon. We have sequenced and analyzed the complete M and F mitogenomes of a freshwater mussel, Potamilus alatus.

Byssogenesis in the juvenile pink heelsplitter mussel, Potamilus alatus (Bivalvia: Unionidae).

The North American pink heelsplitter (Potamilus alatus) differs from most freshwater mussels in China by the ability to secrete an ephemeral byssus during its juvenile stage. In the present study, light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to investigate this ephemeral byssal structure, and amino acid composition was analyzed and compared with that of other species. The results revealed that the byssus consists of a long byssal thread and a few adhesive plaques which are randomly set up along the thread and assembled by petioles.