Recently, our lab showed that the pufferfish Takifugu niphobles fed on the naturally TTX-laden eggs of another pufferfish Takifugu pardalis, suggesting that T.
Indeed, the issue remains unsettled, and the toxification process in pufferfish still remains unclear. However, TTX levels produced by bacterial cultures under potentially non-optimum conditions might be significantly less than those synthesized by bacteria colonizing pufferfish organs. However, tracing the toxification via the food chain exclusively to marine bacteria is unlikely to account for the amount of TTX in the pufferfish body, as bacteria produce minute amounts of toxin 21, 29, 30, 31, 32. This speculation has been supported by several studies that have shown that non-toxic pufferfish are obtained when they are artificially cultured after hatching and fed non-toxic diets, and that these cultured non-toxic pufferfish become toxic when administered TTX orally 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. It has generally been understood that the Takifugu pufferfish species accumulate TTX via the food web, consisting of several steps, starting with TTX producing marine bacteria 22, 23. Furthermore, TTX production has been observed in several species of bacteria that are symbiotic with pufferfish and are obtained from their prey 19, 20, 21, 22. 17) and ribbonworms (e.g., Cephalothrix sp. 4), fishes (e.g., goby Yongeichthys criniger 5), cephalopods (e.g., blue-ringed octopus Hapalochlaena maculosa 6), gastropods (e.g., the Japanese ivory shell Babylonia japonica 7 the opisthobranch Pleurobranchaea maculata 8, 9), crustaceans (e.g., the xanthid crab Atergatis floridus 10), starfishes (e.g., Astropecten spp. Apart from pufferfish, it has been found in various taxonomic groups of animals, including amphibians (e.g., California newt Taricha torosa 3 Costa Rica frog Atelopus spp. TTX is a non-peptidic potent neurotoxin that specifically binds to voltage-gated sodium channels on excitable membranes of muscle and nerve tissues 1, 2. Tetrodotoxin (TTX), named after the Piscean order Tetradontiformes, is also known as pufferfish toxin after one of the main group of fishes in the order.
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