Is the resting rate of oxygen consumption of locomotor muscles in crustaceans limited by the low blood oxygenation strategy?

Numerous water-breathers exhibit a gas-exchange regulation strategy that maintains O(2) partial pressure, P(O2), in the arterial blood within the range 1-3 kPa at rest during the daytime. In a night-active crustacean, we examined whether this could limit the rate of O(2 )consumption (M(O2)) of locomotor muscles and/or the whole body as part of a coordinated response to energy conservation. In the crayfish Astacus leptodactylus, we compared the in vitro relationship between the M(O2) of locomotor muscles as a function of the extracellular P(O2) and P(CO2) and in vivo circadian changes in blood gas tensions at various values of water P(O2). In vitro, the M(O2) of locomotor muscle, either at rest or when stimulated with CCCP, was O(2)-dependent up to an extracellular P(O2) of 8-10 kPa. In vivo, the existence of a night-time increase in arterial P(O2) of up to 4 kPa at water P(O2) values of 20 and 40 kPa was demonstrated, but an experimental increase in arterial P(O2) during the day did not lead to any rise in whole-body M(O2). This suggested that the low blood P(O2) in normoxia has no global limiting effect on daytime whole-body M(O2). The participation of blood O(2) status in shaping the circadian behaviour of crayfish is discussed.