Components of hemocyte extracts from marine invertebrates exert antimicrobial activity

Etude du système glutamate décarboxylase-dépendant de Brucella

Profiling the physiological and molecular response to sulfonamidic drag in Procambarus clarkii

Sulfamethoxazole (SMZ) is one of the most widely employed sulfonamides. Because of the widespread use of SMZ, a considerable amount is indeed expected to be introduced into the environment. The cytotoxicity of SMZ relies mainly on arylhydroxylamine metabolites (S-NOH) of SMZ and it is associated with the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). There is limited information about the toxic potential of SMZ at the cellular and molecular levels, especially in aquatic and/or non-target organisms. In the present study, the red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii), being tolerant to extreme environmental conditions and resistant to disease, was used as a model organism to profile the molecula…

Ulteriori evidenze di attività antimicrobiche in invertebrati marini

The antimicrobial molecules are an abundant group of molecules that are amply distributed in nature, from plants and insects to vertebrate animals, including humans. They are an essential component of the innate immune system for host defence against pathogenic agents of different types. They are often the products of individual genes and circulating cells. In this thesis, based on a bioinformatic analysis, we identified three peptides, members to the family of cathelicidins and to the class of peptides rich in proline (PR-AMPs), that may be generally be considered as the first effectors of the interior defense, acting as natural antibiotics (Scocchi et al., 2011; Reddy et al., 2004). We in…

Studio preliminare sulla caratterizzazione degli emociti di Cancer pagurus

Characterization of cellular and molecular responses of Actinia equina (Linnaeus, 1758)

Physiological and agonistic behavioural response of Procambarus clarkii to an acoustic stimulus

Summary This study examined the effects of an acoustic stimulus on the haemolymph and agonistic behaviour of the red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii. The experiment was conducted in a tank equipped with a video recording system using 6 groups (3 control and 3 test groups) of five adult crayfish (30 specimens in total). After one hour of habituation, the behaviour of the crayfish was monitored for two hours. During the second hour, the animals in the test groups were exposed to a linear sweep (frequency range 0.1-25 kHz; peak amplitude 148 dBrms re 1 µPa at 12 kHz) acoustic stimulus for 30 minutes. Exposure to the noise produced significant variations in haemato-immunological parameters a…