Research Product

Pathologic black gills of pink shrimp, Penaeus duorarum, exposed to 763 µg/l of cadmium chloride for 15 days were studied with transmission electron microscopy and were compared with normal gills of control pink shrimp. Local as well as extensive areas of cell death and necrosis were found in the distal gill filaments of black gills from cadmium-exposed shrimp. It is proposed that necrosis of specialized epithelial cells and septum cells in black gill filaments and contiguous nonblack gill tissue could cause osmoregulatory, detoxifying, and respiratory dysfunction in crustacea, particularly in individuals undergoing environmental stress such as salinity fluctuation.