FUGUE

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a toxin derived from bacteria which is concentrated in the gonads and liver of certain pufferfishes (fugu). Similar to saxitoxin, tetrodotoxin is a very potent blocker of most voltage-sensitive Na+ channels. 

Asano-Miyoshi M., Suda T., Yasuoka A., et al. (2000). Random expression of main and vomeronasal olfactory receptor genes in immature and mature olfactory epithelia of Fugu rubripes. J Biochem 127, 915-924. 

Naito T., Saito Y Yamamoto J., Nozaki Y., et al. (1998). Putative pheromone receptors related to the Ca2+-sensing receptor in Fugu. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95, 5178-5181. 

With the Complete Fugue Cycle on Accompanying Cassette... 

Maier, Michael.Atalanta fugiens ed. L. Wuthrich. Edited by L. Wuthrich., 1964. With the Complete Fugue Cycle on Accompanying Cassette... 

Report on Read s lecture and singing of Maier s fugues... 

Sleeper, Helen Joy. The alchemical fugues in Count Michael Maier s Atalanta fugiens. Easton (PA) , 1938. 

Tonic-clonic0 Tonic0 Clonic0 Myoclonic Erratic ticus convulsivus spike-and-slow-wave or 3/s spike-and-wave, epileptic fugue, epilepsia minora continua, epileptic twilight, minor SE... 

Food poisonings also occur endemically, and concern food that is produced and consumed locally, e.g., Japanese fish fugu, or particular mushroom species. 

Tetrodotoxin Puffer fish (fugu) Nervous system... 

Puffer fish Fugu spp. Tetrodotoxin (found in Vibrio, Pseudomonas spp.) Alkaloid Predators. Local anesthetic (5-30 minutes) death in 6-24 hours (60% mortality)... 

Japanese puffers of the genus Fugu may, however, be exceptional in this regard because they are able to store saxltoxin (as well as tetrodotoxin) in their livers and gonads (13, 14). 

The intraperitoneal LD50 values for fish, as for polkilotherms, are extremely low. This means that fish (with the exception perhaps of Fugu) are unable to tolerate even small amounts of the toxins in their bodies, and hence are unable to accumulate them. This important point will be discussed again below in connection with the effect of the toxins on the use of fish as food. 

Pufferfish. Toxic species are members of the order Tetrodontiformes (Plectognathi) and include the sharp-nosed puffers (Canthigaste-ridae). porcupine fish (Diodontidae) as well as the true puffers or fugu (Tetraodontidae). Many human fatalities continue to occur from eating these fish, including an occasional fatality in Florida (cf. 1.9 9 ). The toxin occurs principally in the ovaries9 liver and, in some species, the skin. 

Tani, I. "A Study of the Toxicity of Japanese Fugu" Teikoku To sho Tokyo, 1945. 

Gonads (10 g) of the pufferfish Fugu pardalis are extracted with 25 mL of 0.02 M acetic acid in a boiling water bath for 10 min. After being cooled to room temperature, the extract is filtered. The filtrate is passed through an Amberlite CG-50 column (NH, 1.2x3 cm). The column is developed with 50 mL each of water and 0.5 M acetic acid. A defatting step may be introduced prior to the column treatment when fat-rich tissues like livers are employed. The toxic eluate is concentrated in vacuo and made up to 20 mL with water. A 50- jaL portion of the solution is analyzed by HPLC. 

Ovaries (100 g) of the pufferfish Fugu vermicularis porphgreus are extracted with 1% acetic acid in methanol. The extract is concentrated in vacuo and defatted by shaking with chloroform. The defatted extract is treated with activated charcoal. The toxin adsorbed is eluted with 1% acetic acid in 20% ethanol. The eluate is evaporated in vacuo to dryness. The residue is dissolved in a small a-mount of water and adjusted to pH 6 with 1 N NaOH. The toxic solution is applied to an Amberlite IRC-50 column (NH, 2.5 x 45 cm) and developed with 2 L of water, and then 1 L each of 1 and 10% acetic acid. The toxic fractions are freeze-dried, dissolved in 1 mL of water and analyzed by HPLC. 

Fish Puffer fish (fugu) blowfish, toadfish. . . some frogs, starfish, ocopus Tetrodotoxin Nervous system numbness, paralysis, respiratory failure, death Decreased sodium channel permeability... 

In any event, Duchamp himself had tied this same title. La Mariee mise h nu, to his own, Maierlike musical fugue (MD-78). Likewise now tied to common alchemical symbolism is Duchamp s unique effort at musical composition, itself probably explicitly hermetic in its formal realization and initial purposes. Duchamp s musical hermeticism most likely has a decipherable formal component. Unfortunately, since I am myself quite unable to read musical scores, I must leave to a properly trained musicologist the onerous task of matching the strictly formal details of Duchamp s and Maier s scores. In any event, the matter of analogous content and purposes between Maier s and Duchamp s three-part fugues seems now perfectly clear. 

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