A lampricide is any chemical designed to target the larvae of

lampreys Lampreys (sometimes inaccurately called lamprey eels) are a group of Agnatha, jawless fish comprising the order (biology), order Petromyzontiformes , sole order in the Class (biology), class Petromyzontida. The adult lamprey is characterize ...

in river systems before they develop into parasitic adults. One lampricide is used in the headwaters of

Lake Champlain Lake Champlain ( ; , ) is a natural freshwater lake in North America. It mostly lies between the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and Vermont, but also extends north into the Canadian province of Quebec. The cities of Burlington, Ve ...

and the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

to control the

sea lamprey The sea lamprey (''Petromyzon marinus'') is a parasitic lamprey native to the Northern Hemisphere. It is sometimes referred to as the "vampire fish". It was likely introduced to the Great Lakes region through the Erie Canal in 1825 and the Wel ...

(''Petromyzon marinus''), an invasive species to these lakes. TFM (3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol) is the main chemical used for this purpose. As it is hydrophobic, it passes through biological membranes. TFM is a metabolic uncoupler—that is, TFM separates the

electron transport chain An electron transport chain (ETC) is a series of protein complexes and other molecules which transfer electrons from electron donors to electron acceptors via redox reactions (both reduction and oxidation occurring simultaneously) and couples th ...

from ATP synthesis, resulting in the failure of the

aerobic respiration Cellular respiration is the process of oxidizing biological fuels using an inorganic electron acceptor, such as oxygen, to drive production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which stores chemical energy in a biologically accessible form. Cellu ...

process. It accomplishes this by disrupting the

electrochemical gradient An electrochemical gradient is a gradient of electrochemical potential, usually for an ion that can move across a membrane. The gradient consists of two parts: * The chemical gradient, or difference in Concentration, solute concentration across ...

that powers

ATP synthase ATP synthase is an enzyme that catalyzes the formation of the energy storage molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) using adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and inorganic phosphate (Pi). ATP synthase is a molecular machine. The overall reaction catalyzed ...

—as an acid, it donates H+ ions to the

mitochondrial matrix In the mitochondrion, the matrix is the space within the inner membrane. It can also be referred as the mitochondrial fluid. The word "matrix" stems from the fact that this space is viscous, compared to the relatively aqueous cytoplasm. The mitoc ...

. The electron transport chain is not affected and continues using oxygen, without producing ATP. While the general opinion is that TFM typically does not harm other fish (due to the relationship between true fish and lampreys), lampricide can be problematic for many amphibians, such as mudpuppies (genus ''

Necturus ''Necturus'' is a genus of aquatic salamanders in the family Proteidae. Species of the genus are native to the eastern United States and Canada. They are commonly known as waterdogs and mudpuppies. The common mudpuppy ''(N. maculosus)'' is p ...

'') which often share the same habitats. Also, some more "primitive" species of fish, such as the

sturgeon Sturgeon (from Old English ultimately from Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European *''str̥(Hx)yón''-) is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the ...

in the

are sensitive to chemicals such as TFM.

References

External links

Sea Lamprey Larvicide LAMPRECID
{dead link, date=December 2017 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
Great Lakes Fishery CommissionBryan, et al., Mol Ecol, 2005
Pesticides Fisheries science Lampreys