mussels taken from a site of known contamination in San 
Francisco Bay. Mussels were collected from a site at Redwood 
City where the California Department of Fish and Game has 
documented their bioconcentration of metals, synthetic organic 
chemicals, and petroleum hydrocarbons (Stephenson et. al. 
1982). In our comparative study (Table 3) we found that the 
total extent of o-toluidine metabolism in mussels from South San 
Francisco Bay was significantly less than mussels from Tomales 
Bay (Knezovich and Crosby, 1985). These results are in agree¬ 
ment with the findings of Martin et. al . (1984) who reported a 
diminished physiological condition, as evidenced by a reduced 
scope for growth, in mussels taken from this site. 
We are currently using our understanding of aromatic amine 
metabolism to better understand the effects of contaminant- 
induced stress. Mussels transplanted from Tomales Bay are being 
monitored for changes in their abilities to metabolize both 
metallic and organic contaminants. The results of this study 
will help us to define limits of physiological adaptation so 
that realistic evaluations of impacted populations can be made. 
Acknowledgements 
This work is supported by the Ecological Research Division 
of the U.S. Department of Energy; Office of Health and Environ¬ 
mental Research. Work is performed under the auspices of the 
U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Lab¬ 
oratory under Contract W-7405-Eng-48. 
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