Search results for "Vertebrate"

A century of research on micro-organisms from the inland waters of the largest mediterranean island

2022

The first studies on the micro-organisms inhabiting Sicilian inland waters date back to the middle of the XIX century. However, these were based on single samples and mainly addressed at compiling faunistic and floristic inventories. It was in the first decades of the XX century that the first methodical studies were performed, which focussed on assessing microbial diversity in saline and hypersaline inland waters. Studies on plankton dynamics in ponds and reservoirs of the island started at the beginning of the 1980s and, since the end of the 1990s, temporary waters have also been intensively sampled, especially as regards phytoplankton and micro-crustaceans. These intensified sampling eff…

Hiding behaviour ofOxynoe olivacea(Mollusca: Opisthobranchia: Sacoglossa) in the invasive seaweedCaulerpa taxifolia

2013

The occurrence of the invasive seaweed Caulerpa taxifolia in the Straits of Messina (Italy) provides an excellent opportunity to examine the spatial and temporal patterns of abundance of the endemic Mediterranean sacoglossan Oxynoe olivacea. Densities of this species were recorded in March, June and October 2000 on three different habitats: the underside of boulders (UNB), the upper side of boulders (UPB), and the surface of concrete blocks (CB). Results showed that in March, O. olivacea was consistently more abundant on UNB whereas in June it was present exclusively on CB. The density of O. olivacea was similar in the three habitats in October. The hiding behaviour of O. olivacea and its s…

The sea urchin sns5 chromatin insulator settles a gene therapy vector into an independent domain of expression in the vertebrate genome

2014

One of the critical aspects of introducing a transgene into the eukaryotic genome is the great variability of gene expression due to position effects (1). Chromatin-dependent repressive states could be overcome by incorporation in the transgene of chromatin insulators, functioning to establish and delimit domains of expression. We have previously demonstrated that the sea urchin sns5 DNA element has the typical features of an insulator: by acting as enhancer blocker, it shields promoters from neighboring regulatory elements, and by acting as barrier it buffers a transgene from the propagation of condensed chromatin (2,3). We have investigated the use of sns5 in the field of gene therapy. Ou…

Chitosan Film Functionalized with Grape Seed Oil—Preliminary Evaluation of Antimicrobial Activity

2022

Although the fishing and wine industries undoubtedly contribute significantly to the economy, they also generate large waste streams with considerable repercussions on both economic and environmental levels. Scientific literature has shown products can be extracted from these streams which have properties of interest to the cosmetics, pharmaceutical and food industries. Antimicrobial activity is undoubtedly among the most interesting of these properties, and particularly useful in the production of food packaging to increase the shelf life of food products. In this study, film for food packaging was produced for the first time using chitosan extracted from the exoskeletons of red shrimp (Ar…

The Grotta Grande of Scario (Salerno, Italy): a spot on the archaeology and the environment durino the last interglacial (OIS 5) of the Mediterranean…

2008

Disentangling conditional effects of multiple regime shifts on Atlantic cod productivity

2020

AbstractRegime shifts are increasingly prevalent in the ecological literature. However, definitions vary, and many detection methods are subjective. Here, we employ an operationally objective means of identifying regime shifts, using a Bayesian online change-point detection algorithm able to simultaneously identify shifts in the mean and(or) variance of time series data. We detected multiple regime shifts in long-term (59-154 years) patterns of coastal Norwegian Atlantic cod (>70% decline) and putative drivers of cod productivity: North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO); sea-surface temperature; zooplankton abundance; fishing mortality (F). The consequences of an environmental or climate-relate…

The Peculiarities of Gonad Transformation in Teleosts

1983

In teleosts the problem of sex determination and sex differentiation is more puzzling than in other vertebrates. It is not known whether the intriguing variety in the conditions of sex results from the position of these fishes within the vertebrate pedigree. They represent the final products of actinopterygian evolution toward the end of the age of reptiles, that is late in the Jurassic era. However, with that evolutionary fact in mind it is more plausible that teleosts deviate in many ways from the pattern that we are used to attribute to vertebrates in general. The following features of sex differentiation are striking examples of teleost peculiarity: (1) In both sexes there is no morphol…

Comparison of sampling methods and habitat types for detecting impacts on lake littoral macroinvertebrate assemblages along a gradient of human distu…

2010

We explored environmental variables structuring littoral macroinvertebrate communities in a large lake basin along a gradient of nutrient enrichment. Furthermore, we evaluated sensitivity and cost-effi ciency of different sampling schemes (i.e. combinations of three habitat types and a number of standard sampling methods) to detect changes in macroinvertebrate communities along this anthropogenic disturbance gradient. Partial canonical ordination analysis showed that habitat characteristics accounted for a major part (56 % uniquely) of the explained variation in the species composition of invertebrate communities. When different mesohabitats were examined separately, assemblage variation of…

Sequence of the new Drosophila melanogaster small heat-shock-related gene, lethal(2) essential for life [l(2)efl], at locus 59F4,5.

1995

Abstract In this study, we report the molecular cloning of a novel Drosophila melanogaster small heat-shock (HS)-homologous gene, l(2)efl, identified on the right arm of the second chromosome at locus 59F4,5. We describe the temporal expression of l(2)efl in the wild-type and present its structure. The deduced amino-acid sequence of the Efl protein shows significant homology to all known small HS proteins identified in Drosophila and vertebrates, and to mammalian α-crystallin.

Novel approach to study the perception of animacy in dogs.

2017

Humans tend to perceive inanimate objects as animate based on simple motion cues. So far this perceptual bias has been studied mostly in humans by utilizing two-dimensional video and interactive displays. Considering its importance for survival, the perception of animacy is probably also widespread among animals, however two-dimensional displays are not necessarily the best approach to study the phenomenon in non-human species. Here we applied a novel method to study whether dogs recognize a dependent (chasing-like) movement pattern performed by inanimate agents in live demonstration. We found that dogs showed more interest toward the agents that demonstrated the chasing-like motion, compar…