HORMONAL CONTROL OF REPRODUCTION INBUSYCON:LAYING OF EGG CAPSULES CAUSED BY NERVOUS SYSTEM EXTRACTS

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Abstract
Mature specimens of female Busycon laid egg capsules when injected with extracts of nervous systems of male or female Busycon. The substance causing this behavior, egg capsule laying substance (ECLS), was found most reliably in parietal ganglia, less consistently in cerebral-pleural gaanglia, and rarely in other ganglia. Both species of Busycon found in Woods Hole [Massachussetts, USA], B. canaliculatum and B. carica, contained ECLS, and ECLS of each species was active in the other. ECLS activity was not destroyed by boiling for up to 15 min. Centrifugation of nervous system extracts at 105,000 .times. g yielded ECLS only in the pellet. ECLS was not released from the pellet by freeze-thawing or by 1.0 M NaCl but could be partially solubilized by boiling extracts before centrifugation. ECLS activity was destroyed by protease; it is presumably a polypeptide. Several animals spontaneously laid strings of egg capsules after being put in a group tank with males and females; the first .apprx. 10 capsules laid by these animals were devoid of eggs, after which egg-containing capsules were laid. Injection of ECLS into a spontaneous egg layer within a few hours after cessation of spontaneous egg laying caused laying of capsules containing eggs. ECLS may normally be responsible for the laying of both eggs and egg capsules.