180 J. S. KITTREDGE et al. 
Below we will present a few of our observations. All of the chromatograms, except 
where noted, were run with applications equivalent to 75 mg of fresh weight of 
tissue. 
Gonyaulax polyhedra, a dinoflagellate (Fig. 1). Many members of this class, the 
Mastigophora, have the capacity to carry on photosynthesis and are included among 
the plants by the biochemists, and since many are heterotrophic and all are motile, 
the subclass Phytostigmata is placed among the protozoa by the zoologists?*. The 
high concentration of y-aminobutyric acid, an amino acid occurring frequently in 
plants”°, but only in the central nervous system of animals?’, suggests a stronger 
relationship to the plants. 
Chromatograms of a Siliceous sponge, Stelletta sp. (Fig. 2) and two Calcareous 
sponges, Rhabdodermella nutting: (Fig. 3) and Xestospongia vanilla (Fig. 4), show 
high glycine in the Siliceous sponge and one Calcareous sponge, but a high taurine 
concentration in the other Calcareous sponge. 
The chromatograms in Figs. 5 and 6 show two examples of relatively high taurine 
contents, the sea pansy, Renilla kollikert and the bryozoan, Chilostomata sp. 
Fig. 7 is presented to show the two new compounds found in Anthopleura (Cribina) 
elegantissima, a sea anemone, which we are investigating. The chromatogram of an 
acid hydrolyzed extract (Fig. 8) shows that spot “Y” disappeared and an increase 
occurred in the spot “X”, suggesting that “Y” may contain a bound form of “X”. 
Chromatograms of extracts of two other sea anemones, Metridium senile (Fig. 9), 
and Corynactis californica (Fig. 10), both showed some “X”. M. senile contains a 
preponderance of taurine and alanine, and C. californica shows high concentrations 
of glutamic acid, alanine, valine and the leucines to be present, but a relatively low 
level of taurine. Glutamine was absent from the extracts of A. elegantissima and 
M. senile. 
In Figs. 11-16 chromatograms are shown of the free amino acids of the brachiopod, 
Terebratella transversa. Figs. 11-13 are the results from muscle tissue, Figs. 14-16 
extracts of the lophophore and gills. The reproducibility of the pattern for a given 
tissue from several specimens, as well as the contrast between different tissues of the 
same species is evident. The muscle shows high taurine and glycine concentrations, 
while the preponderance of taurine is evident in the lophophore and gills. Glutamine 
is low or absent in this species also. 
Fig. 17 shows the pattern of free amino acids found in a sabellid worm, Sabellaria 
sp. with an interesting unknown spot above taurine. The peanut worm, Dendrostoma 
zostericolum (Fig. 18), exhibited high concentrations of aspartic acid and a substance 
which may be ethanolamine phosphate or the phosphodiester of ethanolamine and 
serine, also a small amount of tyrosine-O-sulfate and several unidentified ninhydrin- 
reactive substances. Chromatograms of the gooseneck barnacle, Mitella polymerus 
(Figs. 19-21), exhibited two unknown spots above taurine. 
The results in Fig. 22~25 are presented to show an ecological correlation. Chromato- 
grams of extracts of the isopod, Ligyda occidentalis, which lives in the spray zone on 
rocky cliffs above high tide level (Fig. 22), of the beach hopper, Orchistoidea cali- 
forniana, which occupies a similar niche at the high tide level of sandy beaches (Fig. 23), 
and two terrestrial Arthropoda, the tarantula, Acanthrophrynus coronatus (Fig. 24), 
and the scorpion, Hadrurus hirsutus (Fig. 25) are shown for comparison. Extremely 
high concentrations of several free amino acids were found in the two marine Arthro- 
References p. 186 
