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A Menu for Pearl Mussels: A Recipe for Survival Written in Amino Acids
Published: Friday 5.6.2026
The Freshwater pearl mussel is an icon of our nature, but it is also one of the most endangered species. Despite efforts to protect their habitats in the streams of the Šumava region, the population is still unable to recover naturally. A team led by Tomáš Ječmen and Kateřina Bělonožníková from the Department of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Science, Charles University, has now suggested that a "poor-quality menu" could be the underlying problem. It turns out that what we previously considered an indicator of nutrient richness may actually be, for the most part, unusable matter for the pearl mussels.
