Search results for "Spiders"
showing 10 items of 41 documents
Toward oxygen binding curves of single respiratory proteins
2004
Oxygen binding curves of single molecules promise to discriminate between different models describing cooperativity because load distributions are accessible. Individual tarantula hemocyanins could be detected by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy using intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence as sensor of bound oxygen. However, imaging of immobilized proteins was not possible due to fast photo-bleaching. It is shown that tetra-methyl-carboxy-rhodamine (TAMRA), commonly used as a fluorescence label in single-molecule spectroscopy, can also be applied to monitor bound oxygen. The dye's fluorescence is quenched due to Förster energy transfer to the oxygenated active sites of hemocyanin.
The age and evolution of sociality in Stegodyphus spiders: a molecular phylogenetic perspective
2006
Social, cooperative breeding behaviour is rare in spiders and generally characterized by inbreeding, skewed sex ratios and high rates of colony turnover, processes that when combined may reduce genetic variation and lower individual fitness quickly. On these grounds, social spider species have been suggested to be unstable in evolutionary time, and hence sociality a rare phenomenon in spiders. Based on a partial molecular phylogeny of the genus Stegodyphus , we address the hypothesis that social spiders in this genus are evolutionary transient. We estimate the age of the three social species, test whether they represent an ancestral or derived state and assess diversification relative to s…
Detection of Single Oxygen Molecules with Fluorescence-Labeled Hemocyanins
2005
This study introduces a method to detect individual oxygen molecules by fluorescence microscopy of single hemocyanins. These respiratory proteins from a tarantula bind oxygen with high affinity. A spectrometric signature of the oxygenated protein is transferred to an attached fluorescence label, which can be detected at the single-molecule level. This technique opens new perspectives for the development of small and sensitive oxygen sensors as well as for the investigation of cooperative oxygen binding in respiratory proteins.
Tarantula hemocyanins imaged by atomic force microscopy
2004
Individual 4 x 6-meric tarantula hemocyanins and dissociation products were imaged by AFM in the non-contact mode. Although the resolution was low, the hexamers and topological arrangement within the oligomers can be seen. However, the relative humidity seems to affect the height profiles.
Methionine in a protein hydrophobic core drives tight interactions required for assembly of spider silk
2019
Web spiders connect silk proteins, so-called spidroins, into fibers of extraordinary toughness. The spidroin N-terminal domain (NTD) plays a pivotal role in this process: it polymerizes spidroins through a complex mechanism of dimerization. Here we analyze sequences of spidroin NTDs and find an unusually high content of the amino acid methionine. We simultaneously mutate all methionines present in the hydrophobic core of a spidroin NTD from a nursery web spider’s dragline silk to leucine. The mutated NTD is strongly stabilized and folds at the theoretical speed limit. The structure of the mutant is preserved, yet its ability to dimerize is substantially impaired. We find that side chains of…
A potential role for water in the modulation of oxygen-binding by tarantula hemocyanin
2003
Hemocyanin from the tarantula Eurypelma californicum is a large respiratory protein with an exceptional high cooperativity. In contrast to hemocyanins from other species, no physiological allosteric effectors other than protons have been identified so far for this 24-meric oligomer. Here we report for the first time the mediating effects of water activity on the oxygen binding properties of a hemocyanin. Oxygen binding curves were measured in presence of several concentrations of glycine and sucrose since both substances reduce water activity. A pronounced shift of the p(50) was observed in both cases but in different directions: adding sucrose shifts the p(50) towards lower values whereas …
Molecular phylogeny of the spider family Sparassidae with focus on the genus Eusparassus and notes on the RTA-clade and ‘Laterigradae’
2013
The phylogeny of the spider family Sparassidae is comprehensively investigated using four molecular markers (mitochondrial COI and 16S; nuclear H3 and 28S). Sparassidae was recovered as monophyletic and as most basal group within the RTA-clade. The higher-level clade Dionycha was not but monophyly of RTA-clade was supported. No affiliation of Sparassidae to other members of the 'Laterigradae' (Philodromidae, Selenopidae and Thomisidae) was observed, and the crab-like posture of this group assumed a result of convergent evolution. Only Philodromidae and Selenopidae were found members of a supported clade, but together with Salticidae and Corinnidae, while Thomisidae was nested within the hig…
Crab spiders of the families Thomisidae and Philodromidae (Arachnida: Araneae) from Iran
2004
Spiders of the families Thomisidae and Philodromidae (Arachnida, Araneae) mainly collected in the mountainous areas of Iran in 1978 are taxonomically studied and classified into 21 species of 10 genera. Most species are illustrated and described on the basis of the present specimens. Except for only two species, Xysticus kulczynskii Wierzbicki 1902 and Synaema globosum (Fabricius 1775), already known from this country, 19 species are new records to the Iranian fauna. Of these, 14 species, Tmarus stellio Simon 1875, Xysticus ninnii Thorell 1872 (subsp. fusciventris Crome 1965), X. cristatus (Clerck 1758), X. kochi Thorell 1872, X. gallicus Simon 1875, Oxyptila nigrita Thorell 1875, Heriaeus …
Automatic image‐based identification and biomass estimation of invertebrates
2020
Understanding how biological communities respond to environmental changes is a key challenge in ecology and ecosystem management. The apparent decline of insect populations necessitates more biomonitoring but the time-consuming sorting and expert-based identification of taxa pose strong limitations on how many insect samples can be processed. In turn, this affects the scale of efforts to map and monitor invertebrate diversity altogether. Given recent advances in computer vision, we propose to enhance the standard human expert-based identification approach involving manual sorting and identification with an automatic image-based technology. We describe a robot-enabled image-based identificat…
Kinetic properties of catecholoxidase activity of tarantula hemocyanin
2008
Phenoloxidases occur in almost all organisms, being essentially involved in various processes such as the immune response, wound healing, pigmentation and sclerotization in arthropods. Many hemocyanins are also capable of phenoloxidase activity after activation. Notably, in chelicerates, a phenoloxidase has not been identified in the hemolymph, and thus hemocyanin is assumed to be the physiological phenoloxidase in these animals. Although phenoloxidase activity has been shown for hemocyanin from several chelicerate species, a characterization of the enzymatic properties is still lacking. In this article, the enzymatic properties of activated hemocyanin from the tarantula Eurypelma californi…