teleosts, a reptile, and manmals from a marine environment and in a 

 crustacean, most teleosts, and an amphibiaii from a fresh-water environment. 

 In general, animals from a marine environment contedn much greater amounts 

 of the oxide than do animals from a fresh-water environment. The oxide is 

 unevenly distributed among marine animsils. In marine teleosts, the factors 

 of geographic environment, species, season, size, and location in the 

 animal affect the content of oxide. 



Trimethylamine oxide has not been reported in plants; however, 

 other tertiary amine oxides and tertiary amines have been reported. 



Trimethyl amine oxide appears to contribute to the osmotic pressure 

 of the elasmobranch . It is not known if the oxide functions as an osmotic 

 pressure agent in the teleost. 



Certain marine animals possess a strong methylating capacity. 

 It has been reported that trimethylamine oxide will methylate choline in 

 a system isolated from a mammal; however, no such system has been isolated 

 from a marine animal. 



It has been suggested that trimethylamine oxide is endogenous in 

 origin and that it might be a product of protein metabolism. There is, 

 however, no direct evidence to prove this point. Mechanisms for the syn- 

 thesis of trimethylamine oxides have not been demonstrated in emimals or 

 plants . 



In higher marine animals, the occurrence of trimethylamine oxide 

 can be caused by an exogenous source, since it has been shown that the 

 oxide can accxunulate in the muscles of fish from trimethylamine oxide in 

 the food. The zooplankton are the first animals in the food chain that 

 contain the oxide. Zooplankton could obtain the oxide by converting 

 exogenous trimethylamine to the oxide or by synthesizing the oxide from 

 smaller frsigments. The primary origin, however, of trimethylamine oxide 

 in marine animals is still to be explained. 



LITERATURE CITED 



ANDERSON, D. W., JR., AND C. R. FELLERS 

 19^9* Some aspects of trimethyl- 

 amine formation in swordfish. 

 Food Technology, vol. 3^ no. 8, 

 August, pp. 271-273. 



ANDERSON, D. W., AND C. R. FELLERS 



1952. The occurrence of trimethyl- 

 amine and trimethylamine oxide 

 in fresh-water fishes. Food 

 Research, vol. YJ, no. 6, 

 November-December, pp. kJ2-k'Jk, 



ARNSTEIN, H. R. V. 



1955. The fxinction of vitamin B^^g 

 in animal metabolism. In "The 

 Biochemistry of Vitamin B^^o'" 

 Biochemical Society Symposia No. 

 13^ PP* 92-108, University Press, 

 Cambridge, England. 



ASANO, M., AND H. SATO 



195^, Biochemical studies on 

 octopus. I - Trimethylamine 

 and trimethylamine oxide con- 

 tents of octopus. Tohoku JourneQ. 

 of Agricultural Research, vol. 5^ 

 no. 3^ December, pp. 191-195 • 



17 



