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REVIEW article

Front. Physiol.
Sec. Aquatic Physiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2024.1399194

Ionic regulatory strategies of crabs: the transition from water to land

Provisionally accepted
Čedomil Lucu Čedomil Lucu 1Lucy M. Turner Lucy M. Turner 2*
  • 1 Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2 University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Terrestrial crabs (Brachyurans and Anomurans) have invaded land following a variety of pathways from marine and/or via freshwater environments. This switch from water to land requires physiological, ecological, and behavioral adaptations to allow the exploitation of these new environmental conditions. Arguably it is the management of salt and water balance (e.g. osmoregulation) which is integral for their survival and success in an environment where predominantly low saline (e.g. freshwater) water sources are available, sometimes in only minimal amounts. This requires a suite of morphological and biochemical modifications, especially at the branchial chamber of semi-terrestrial and terrestrial crabs to allow the reprocessing of urine to maximize ion uptake. Using knowledge gained from electrophysiology, biochemistry, and more recent molecular biology techniques we present summarized updated models for ion transport for all major taxonomic groups of terrestrial crabs. This is an exciting and fast-moving field of research and we hope this review will stimulate further study. Terrestrial crabs retain their crown as the ideal model group for studying the evolutionary pathways that facilitated the terrestrial invasion.

    Keywords: Brachyura, Anomura, Na + /K + -ATPase (NKA), V-type H + -ATPase (VHA), gill, branchiostegal lung, Antennal gland, transporters

    Received: 11 Mar 2024; Accepted: 25 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lucu and Turner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lucy M. Turner, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.