Urea: Diverse functions of a 'waste' product

Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology

Volumn 25, Issue 9, 1998, Pages 722-727

  Withers, Philip C ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA   (Australia)

Author keywords

Air breathing; Ammonia; Excretion; Osmolyte; Solubility; Toxicity; Urea cycle; Uric acid

Indexed keywords

AMMONIA; UREA; URIC ACID;

AMPHIBIA; BREATHING; CONFERENCE PAPER; EVOLUTION; EXCRETION; FISH; HUMAN; INVERTEBRATE; KIDNEY FUNCTION; MAMMAL; NONHUMAN; SOLUBILITY; TELEOST; TOXICITY; UREA CYCLE; URINARY EXCRETION; VERTEBRATE;

EID: 0031691175     PISSN: 03051870     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-1681.1998.tb02284.x     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (45)

1. Withers PC. An exploration of salt and water balance in invertebrate and vertebrate animals. In: Daeke C, Danks J, Caple I, Flik G (eds). The Comparative Endocrinology of Calcium Regulation. Society tor Endocrinology, Bristol. 1996; Ch. 2.
2. Wright PA. Nitrogen excretion: Three end products, many physiological roles. J. Exp. Biol. 1995; 198: 273-81.
3. Cameron JN, Heisler N. Studies of ammonia in the rainbow trout: Physico-chemical parameters, acid - base behaviour and respiratory clearance. J. Exp. Biol. 1983; 105: 107-25.
4. Sanders NK, Childress JJ. Ion replacement as a buoyancy mechanism in a pelagic deep-sea crustacean. J. Exp. Biol. 1988; 138: 333-43.
5. Wright JC, O'Donnell MJ, Reichert J. Effects of ammonia loading on Porcellio scaber: Glutamine and glutamate synthesis, ammonia excretion and toxicity. J. Exp. Biol. 1994; 188: 143-57.
6. Studier EH. Respiratory ammonia filtration, mucous composition and ammonia tolerance in bats. J. Exp. Zool. 1969; 170: 253-8.
7. Lawson FS, Cherlebois RL, Dillon J-AR. Phylogenetic analysis of carbamylphosphate synthetase genes: Complex evolutionary history includes an internal duplication within a gene which can root the tree of life. Mol. Biol. Evol. 1996; 13: 970-7.
8. Paulus H. The evolutionary history of the ornithine cycle as a determinant of its structure and regulation. Curr. Top. Cell. Regul. 1983; 22: 177-200.
9. Jenkinson CP, Grody WW, Cederbaum SD. Comparative properties of arginase. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 1996; 114B: 107-32.
10. Mommsen TP, Walsh PJ. Evolution of urea synthesis in vertebrates: The piscine connection. Science 1989; 243: 72-5.
11. Saha N, Dkhar J, Anderson PM, Ratha BK. Carbamyl phosphate synthelases in an air-breathing teleost. Heteropneustes fossilis. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 1997; 116B: 57-63.
12. Griffith RW. Guppies, toadfish, lungfish, coelacanths and frogs: A scenario for the evolution of urea retention in fishes. Environ. Biol. Fish 1991; 32: 199-218.
13. Yancey PH, Clark ME, Hand SC, Bowlus RD, Somero GN. Living with water stress: Evolution of osmolyte systems. Science 1982; 217: 1214-22.
14. Withers PC, Morrison G, Hefter GT, Pang T-S. Role of urea and methylamines in buoyancy of elasmobranchs. J. Exp. Biol. 1994; 188: 175-89.
15. Gordon MS, Tucker VA. Further observations on the physiology of the crab-eating frog (Rana cancrivora). J. Exp. Biol. 1968; 49: 185-93.
16. Abe AS, Bicudo JEPW. Adaptations to salinity and osmoregulation in the frog Thoropa miliaris (Amphibia, Leptodactylidae). Zool. Anz. 1991; 227: 313-18.
17. Romspert AP, McClanahan LL. Osmoregulation of the terrestrial salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum, in hypersaline media. Copeia 1981; 1981: 400-5.
18. Saha N, Ratha BK. Comparative study of ureogenesis in freshwater, air-breathing teleosts. J. Exp. Zool. 1989; 252: 1-8.
19. Saha N, Ratha BK. Induction of ornithine-urea cycle in a freshwater teleost, Heteropneustes fossilis, exposed to high concentrations of ammonium chloride. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 1994; 108B: 315-25.
20. Shoemaker VH, Hillman SS, Hillyard SD et al. Exchange of water, ions, and respiratory gases in terrestrial amphibians. In: Feder ME, Burggren WW (eds). Environmental Physiology of the Amphibians. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 1992; Ch. 6.
21. Jørgensen CB. Urea and amphibian water economy. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 1997; 117A: 161-70.
22. Withers PC, Guppy M. Do Australian desert frogs co-accumulate counteracting solutes with urea during aestivation? Exp. Biol. 1996; 199: 1809-16.
23. Yancey PH, Somero GN. Methylamine osmoregulatory solutes of elasmobranch fishes counteract urea inhibition of enzymes. J. Exp. Zool. 1980l; 212: 205-13.
24. Grundy JE, Storey KB. Urea and salt effects on enzymes from estivating and non-estivating amphibians. Mol. Cell. Biochem. 1994; 131: 9-17.
25. Mashino T, Fridovich I. Effects of urea and trimethylamine-N-oxide effects on enzyme activity and stability. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 1987; 258: 356-60.
26. Yancey PH. Osmotic effectors in kidneys of xeric and mesic rodents: Corticomedullary distributions and changes with water availability. J. Comp. Physiol. 1988; 158B: 369-80.
27. Hewitt S, Wheldrake JF, Baudinette RV. Water balance and renal function in the Australian desert rodent Notomys alexis: The effect of diet on water turnover rate, glomerular filtration rate, renal plasma flow and renal blood flow. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 1981; 68A: 405-10.
28. Lien Y-H, Pacelli MM, Braun EJ. Characterization of organic osmolytes in avian renal medulla: A nonurea osmotic gradient system. Am. J. Physiol. 1993; 264: R1045-9.
29. Wood CM, Hopkins TE, Walsh PJ. Pulsatile urea excretion in the toadfish (Opsanus beta) is due to a pulsatile excretion mechanism, not a pulsatile production mechanism. J Exp. Biol. 1997; 200: 1039-46.
30. Thomson KS. The adaptation and evolution of early fishes. Q. Rev. Biol. 1971; 46: 139-66.
31. Janssens PA. The influence of ammonia on the transition to ureotelism in Xenopus laevis. J. Exp. Zool. 1981; 182: 357-66.
32. Wright PM, Wright PA. Nitrogen metabolism and excretion in bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) tadpoles and adults exposed to elevated environmental ammonia levels. Physiol. Zool. 1996; 69: 1057-78.
33. Chen J-C, Cheng S-Y. Urea excretion by Penaeus japonicus Bate exposed to different concentrations of ambient ammonia. J. Exp. Marine Biol. Ecol. 1993; 173: 1-9.
34. Walsh PJ, Bergman HL, Narahara A et al. Effects of ammonia on survival, swimming and activities of enzymes of nitrogenous metabolism in the Lake Magadi tilapia Oreochromis alcalicus Grahami. J Exp. Biol. 1993; 180: 323-87.
35. McGeer JC, Wright PA, Wood CM, Wilkie MP, Mazur CF, Iwama GK. Nitrogen excretion in four species of fish from an alkaline lake. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 1994; 123: 82-4-9.
36. Greenaway P, Morris S. Adaptations to a terrestrial existence by the robber crab, Birgus latro L. III. Nitrogenous excretion. J. Exp. Biol. 1989; 143: 333-46.
37. Wood CM, Boutilier RG, Randall DJ. The physiology of dehydration stress in the land crab. Cardisoma carnifex: Respiration, ionoregulation, acid - base balance and nitrogenous waste excretion. J Exp. Biol. 1986; 126: 271-96.
38. Varley DG, Greenaway P. Nitrogenous excretion in the terrestrial carnivorous crab Geograpsus grayi: Site and mechanism of excretion. J. Exp. Biol. 1994; 190: 179-93.
39. De Vries MC, Wolcott DL, Holliday CW. High ammonia and low pH in the urine of the ghost crab, Ocypode quadrata. Biol. Bull. 1994; 186: 342-8.
40. Wood CM, Boutilier RG. Osmoregulation, ionic exchange, blood chemistry, and nitrogenous waste excretion in the land crab Cardisoma carnifex: A field and laboratory study. Biol. Bull. 1985; 169: 267-90.
41. Rozemeijer MJC, Plaut I. Regulation of nitrogen excretion of the amphibious Blenniidae Alticus kirki (Guenther, 1868) during emersion and immersion. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 1993; 104A: 57-62.
42. Preest MR, Beuchat CA. Ammonia excretion by hummingbirds. Nature 1997; 386: 561.
43. Atkinson DE. Functional role of urea synthesis in vertebrates. Physiol. Zool. 1992; 65: 243-67.
44. Barber ML, Walsh PJ. Interactions of acid - base status and nitrogen excretion and metabolism in the urogenic teleost Opsanus beta. J. Exp. Biol. 1993; 185: 87-105.
45. Boon L, Blommaart PJE, Meijer AJ, Lamers WH, Schoolwerth AC. Acute acidosis inhibits liver amino acid transport: No primary role for the urea cycle in acid - base balance. Am. J. Physiol. 1994; 267: F1015-20.