Gill Morphology
Corbiculacean bivalve gill morphology
Below and to the left is a "clickable"
idealized rendering of
a gill
filament of Corbicula fluminea,(Muller,
1774) the Asiatic
Clam.
Below and to the right is a transmission electron micrograph of the top
portion of the gill filament. There are five major cell types that
compose
the ciliated epithelium of the gill of the Corbiculacean clams: the
frontal cells, the cirrus
cells,
the eu-lateral
frontal cells, the mucous
cells,
and the lateral
cells. There are also nerve
bundles
within
the filament of the gill. To see any of the structures mentioned above,
you can click on the links above or you can click on any region of the
idealized gill filament below and to the left.
There are also micrographs of other
structures
of the gill avaialable for viewing.
You can also click on any of the cell types (below in the image or
above) to get a summary (and at least one electron micrograph) of its
structure
and function.
TEM images were taken by Tony Deneka. SEM images were taken by Karen Moulton and Tony Deneka.