AN AUTORADIOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF MELANOGENESIS IN THE FIDDLER CRAB,UCA PUGNAX(S. I. SMITH)

Open Access

1 October 1969

journal article
other
Published by University of Chicago Press in The Biological Bulletin

Vol. 137 (2) , 277-285
https://doi.org/10.2307/1540100

Abstract

1. Autoradiographs prepared from whole mounts and sections of Uca pugnax epidermis labelled in vivo with 3H-tyrosine showed incorporation only into melanin granules within melanophores.2. Incorporation occurred whether the pigment was in a concentrated (e.g., destalked crabs) or expanded (e.g, entire crabs—black background) condition.3. Fiddler crab melanin granules appear spherical in light micrographs and have a mean diameter (±S.E.) of 0.98 µ±0.02.4. The epidermis of the back of the fiddler crab shows two layers of melanophores, one lining the hemocoel basement membrane, the other lining the exoskeleton. This may be a result of the formation of the carapace as a fold from the maxillary segment. Melanophores and melanophore processes also are found in the spongy at intra-epidermal connective tissue.

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