Unio pictorum mancus (Mollusca, Bivalvia) as fresh waters bioremediator. An histochemical study of the annual cycle of activity.

Fresh water mussel Unio pictorum mancus is used to attempt the bioremediation of Avigliana lakes, Piedmont, Italy. Clearly the metabolic and filtering activity may be strongly influenced by environmental factors and reproductive activity, as demonstrated in other fresh water mussel species. In order to optimise the bioremediation effort by assessing such influences, we applied some morphological and histochemical techniques on slices of the Unio mantle.