Arsenic speciation in sea scallop gonads

Abstract

Abstract The arsenic species in male and female sea scallop gonads ( Placopecten magellanicus ) at pre‐spawning and post‐spawning stages, collected near Newfoundland, Canada, were characterized by using high‐performance liquid chromatography–inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry. All samples contain arsenobetaine (0.5–3.0 µg g −1 ) and a dimethylarsinoylriboside derivative as the major water‐soluble arsenic compounds. Male pre‐spawning gonads contain 0.35–2.4 µg g −1 of the dimethylarsinoylriboside. Female pre‐spawning gonads contain 0.47–9.64 µg g −1 of the same compound. Post‐spawning gonads, both male and female, contain higher concentrations of this compound (3.7–11.4 µg g −1 ). The total concentrations of water‐soluble arsenic compounds are different in male and female pre‐spawning gonads. These differences are not obvious in post‐spawning gonads. Post‐spawning gonads contain higher total concentrations of water‐soluble arsenic compounds than pre‐spawning gonads. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.