1. The physiological properties of contraction and the ultrastructure of the longitudinal retractor muscle (LRM) of a sea cucumber Stichopus japonicus were studied to give information about the sources of activator Ca in echinoderm somatic smooth muscles. 2. The magnitude of AChand K-induced contractures was dependent on [Ca]0, and both contractures were eliminated in Ca-free solution, while th...

1. The effect of mechanical vibration on active tension in an echinoderm somatic smooth muscle was studied using the longitudinal retractor muscle (LRM) of a sea cucumber Stichopus japonicus. 2. The steady contracture tension in LRM fibres maximally activated with 10(-3) mol l-1 acetylcholine (ACh) was reduced by vibrations (peak-to-peak amplitude, 0.5­2.5 % of l0, where l0 is the slack len...

Glycosaminoglycan was isolated from the body wall of sea cucumber Stichopus japonicus by a method consisting of enzymatic digestion, gel filtration, and ion-exchange chromatography. One gram of sea cucumber glycosaminoglycan was composed of 2.50 mmol of sulfate, 0.47 mmol of N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc), 0.53 mmol of glucuronic acid (GlcA), 1.73 mmol of fucose, and a small amount of peptide. ...

This study aimed to determine phylogenetic relationship between and among selected species of sea cucumbers (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea) using 16S mitochondrial ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene. Phylogenetic analyses of 37 partial sequences of 16S mitochondrial rRNA gene using three main methods namely neighbour joining (NJ), maximum parsimony (MP) and maximum likelihood (ML) showed the presence of ...