Re-evaluation of C and K corpuscles, supposed apple snail "endosymbionts"

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2014-01-15
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Takebayashi, Taryn
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Cowie, Robert
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Biology
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University of Hawaii at Manoa
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The original purpose of this project was to determine whether or not there is coevolution between apple snails (Family: Ampullariidae) and their putative endosymbionts, C and K corpuscles, found in their digestive gland and feces. These corpuscles had been described in detail for one species of apple snail, Pomacea canaliculata with preliminary findings in Pomacea insularum, Pomacea scalaris, and Asolene pulchella. In addition to Pomacea canaliculata, two species of apple snails can be found in Hawaii, Pila conica, introduced to Molokai, and Asolene spixii, sold as an aquarium pet. This study looked for the presence of corpuscles in these two additional species and compared/contrasted their morphological features to corpuscles from Pomacea canaliculata. Initial analyses of the corpuscles' morphology via light microscopy confirmed the presence of C and K corpuscles in Pila conica and Asolene spixii. However, light, confocal, and transmission electron micrographs revealed additional characteristics that were not reported in previous studies suggesting that the corpuscles were endosymbiotic and resembled cyanobacteria. The newly described morphological and chemical features of the corpuscles seem to suggest that the corpuscles are not cyanobacteria and may not be endosymbiotic. Thus this study changed focus to improving the description of corpuscles in relation to their surrounding tissues and developing hypotheses for how corpuscles originate.
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44 pages
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