Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-rkxrd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T16:23:15.341Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Epidermal tags in clupeid fishes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

A. C. G. Best  and
M. Whitear
A. C. G. Best
Affiliation:
The Laboratory, Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth PL1 2PB
M. Whitear
Affiliation:
Zoology Department, University College, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The clupeid fishes Clupea harengus and Sprattus sprattus have small cellular tags projecting from the surface of the epidermis of the head and the margins of the scales. The tags are innervated and assumed to be tactile sensory organs. The fine structure has been investigated by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The protruding part consists of a core of four columns of cells joined by numerous desmosomes, less firmly attached to a single layer of superficial cells. Fine, varicose, nerve fibres run under the superficial cells and end freely. Beneath the tag is a group of prominent basal layer cells and a dermal intrusion with a small nerve. No Merkel cells have been detected in the organs.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , February 1987 , pp. 135 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Best, A. C. G. & Gray, J. A. B., 1982. Nerve fibre and receptor counts in the sprat utriculus and lateral line. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 62, 201–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaxter, J. H. S. & Batty, R. S., 1985. Herring behaviour in the dark: responses to stationary and continuously vibrating obstacles. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 65, 1031–1049.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaxter, J. H. S., Gray, J. A. B. & Best, A. C. G., 1983. Structure and development of the free neuromasts and lateral line system of the herring. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 63, 247–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaxter, J. H. S. & Hunter, J. R., 1982. The biology of the clupeoid fishes. Advances in Marine Biology, 20, 1–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, H., Lane, E. B. & Whitear, M., 1980. Sensory nerve endings and receptors in fish and amphibians. In The Skin of Vertebrates (ed. Spearman, R. I. C. and Riley, P. A.), pp. 271–281. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Fox, H. & Whitear, M., 1986. Genesis and regression of the figures of Eberth and occurrence of cytokeratin aggregates in the epidermis of anuran larvae. Anatomy and Embryology, 174, 73–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harding, C. V., Copeland, D. E., Susan, S. R. & Lo, W.-K., 1981. A newly described organ associated with the eye and lateral line system in the marine teleost, Stenotomus chrysops. Tissue and Cell, 13, 501–513.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lane, E. B. & Whitear, M., 1977. On the occurrence of Merkel cells in the epidermis of teleost fishes. Cell and Tissue Research, 182, 235–246.Google ScholarPubMed
Lane, E. B. & Whitear, M., 1982. Sensory structures at the surface of fish skin. II. Lateralis system. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 76, 19–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lasker, R. & Threadgold, L. T., 1968. ‘Chloride cells’ in the skin of the larval sardine. Experimental Cell Research, 52, 582–590.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Verheijen, F. J., 1956. On a method for collecting and keeping clupeids for experimental purposes, together with some remarks on fishery with light-sources and a short description of free cupulae of the lateral line organ on the trunk of the sardine, Clupea pilchardus Walb. Pubblicazioni della Stazione zoologica di Napoli, 28, 225–240.Google Scholar
Whitear, M., 1986. The skin of fishes including cyclostomes. In Biology of the Integument, vol. 2 (ed. Bereiter-Hahn, J., Matoltsy, A. G. and Richards, K. S.), pp. 8–64. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar