SUMMARY The effects of long-term freshwater acclimatization were investigated in juvenile sea-bass Dicentrarchus labrax to determine whether all sea-bass juveniles are able to live in freshwater and to investigate the physiological basis of a successful adaptation to freshwater. This study particularly focused on the ability of sea-bass to maintain their hydromineral balance in freshwater and on their ion (re)absorbing abilities through the gills and kidneys. Two different responses were recorded after a long-term freshwater acclimatization. (1) Successfully adapted sea-bass displayed standard behavior; their blood osmolality was maintained almost constant after the freshwater challenge, attesting to their efficient hyperosmoregulation. Their branchial and renal Na+/K+-ATPase abundance and activity were high compared to seawater fish due to a high number of branchial ionocytes and to the involvement of the urinary system in active ion reabsorption, producing hypotonic urine. (2) Sea-bass that had not successfully adapted to freshwater were recognized by abnormal schooling behavior. Their blood osmolality was low (30% lower than in the successfully adapted sea-bass), which is a sign of acute osmoregulatory failure. High branchial Na+/K+-ATPase abundance and activity compared to successfully adapted fish were coupled to a proliferation of gill chloride cells, whose ultrastructure did not display pathological signs. The large surface used by the gill chloride cells might negatively interfere with respiratory gas exchanges. In their urinary system, enzyme abundance and activity were low, in accordance with the observed lower density of the kidney tubules. Urine was isotonic to blood in unsuccessfully adapted fish, ruling out any participation of the kidney in hyperosmoregulation. The kidney failure seems to generate a compensatory ion absorption through increased gill activity, but net ion loss through urine seems higher than ion absorption by the gills, leading to lower hyper-osmoregulatory performance and to death.

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This study investigates the involvement of eyestalk neuroendocrine factors on osmoregulation in the crayfishAstacus leptodactylus maintained in freshwater. Eyestalk removal was followed by a significant decrease in hemolymph osmolality and Na + concentration and by a 50% increase in mass after one molting cycle.

The ontogeny of osmoregulatory organs was studied in two geographically isolated populations of the palaemonid shrimp Macrobrachium amazonicum, one originating from the Amazon estuary (A) and the other from inland waters of the Pantanal (P) in northeastern and southwestern Brazil, respectively. A previous investigation had shown that the estuarine population is able to hypo-osmoregulate in seawater, whereas the hololimnetic inland population has lost this physiological function. In the present study, the structural development of the branchial chamber and excretory glands and the presence of Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase (NKA) were compared between populations and between larval and juvenile stages after exposure to two salinities representing hypo- and hypertonic environments. In the newly hatched zoea I stage of both populations, gills were absent and NKA was localized along the inner epithelium of the branchiostegite. In intermediate (zoea V) and late larval stages (decapodids), significant differences between the two populations were observed in gill development and NKA expression. In juveniles, NKA was detected in the gills and branchiostegite, with no differences between populations. At all developmental stages and in both populations, NKA was present in the antennal glands upon hatching. The strong hypo-osmoregulatory capacity of the early developmental stages in population A could be linked to ion transport along the inner side of the branchiostegite; this seemed to be absent or weak in population P. The presence of fully functional gills expressing NKA appears to be essential for efficient hyper-osmoregulation in late developmental stages during successful freshwater adaptation and colonization.