THE RESPIRATION OF ASCARIS LUMBRICOIDES EGGS

Abstract

The rate of oxygen consumption of developing ascaris eggs decreased rapidly to a minimum after 1.5 days, and thereafter increased to a maximum at 10 days, when the embryos were vermiform. During the 10–20 day period, when the embryo matures and molts once in the egg, the respiration decreased steadily, and continued to decrease more slowly until at 140 days the rate was scarcely measurable. Nevertheless, the eggs remained viable and hatched readily in the mouse gut. Cytochrome c and cytochrome oxidase could not be detected by direct assay or isolation. However, the high sensitivity of the respiration to carbon monoxide (in the dark), to cyanide, and to azide, and the low sensitivity to carbon monoxide (in the light) and to decreasing partial pressures of oxygen, indicated that oxidases such as the flavoproteins, phenolases, and peroxidases were unlikely respiratory catalysts, and that cytochrome oxidase, or a similar and hitherto undescribed enzyme, was the major component of the terminal respiratory enzyme system.