Sturgeons (Acipenser schrenckii) are of high evolutionary, economic, and conservation value, and caviar isone of the most valuable animal food products in the world. The Illumina HiSeq2000 sequencing platform was used to construct testicular and ovarian transcriptomes to identify genes involved in reproduction and sex determination in A. schrenckii. A total of 122,381 and 114,527 unigenes were ...

In the present study, we examined the insulin-like growth factor receptor 1(IGF-1R) transcription using real-time PCR at different stages of oocytes of Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) at age 8-9 years and weight 25 kg that were grown under aquaculture conditions. Compare to the pre-vitellogenesis stage, the transcription of IGF-1R increased at the vitellogenesis stages (yellow, gra...

Sturgeons are known throughout the world as the source of black caviar. Their declining populations in their native habitats, mainly the Caspian Sea, due to over-fishing for meat and caviar production, destruction of their spawning grounds and water pollution, have led to their introduction into aquaculture in areas with suitable conditions, including Israel. Recently, we noticed an unusual phe...

The covering of the eggs in Russian sturgeon Acipenser gueldenstaedtii consists of three envelopes (the vitelline envelope, chorion and extrachorion) and is equipped with multiple micropyles. The most proximal to the oocyte is the vitelline envelope that consists of four layers of filamentous and trabecular material. The structural components of this envelope are synthesized by the oocyte (prim...

The sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus L.) is a bottom-feeding fish species with a direct exposure to contaminants from water and sediments. Although heavy metal pollution is believed to be one of the main threats to the sterlet population in the Danube River basin, there is a lack of knowledge of the exact impact of heavy metals on their survival. In the present study, effects of heavy metal pollutio...

The L-type Ca2+ channel or dihydropyridine receptor (DHPR) in vertebrate skeletal muscle is responsible for sensing sarcolemmal depolarizations and transducing this signal to the sarcoplasmic Ca2+ release channel RyR1 via conformational coupling to initiate muscle contraction. During this excitation-contraction (EC) coupling process there is a slow Ca2+ current through the mammalian DHPR which ...

Sequencing analysis was used to characterize a mtDNA D-Ioop amplicon of 838 bp. Four pallid sturgeons, Scaphirhynchus albus, and four shovelnose sturgeons, S. platorynchus, from four states (Illinois, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota) were used for this analysis. DNA sequencing ofthe nine fish revealed eleven polymorphic sites and six distinct haplotypes. No fixed nucleotide substitutions were ...

Acipenseriformes are composed of 25 sturgeon species and two paddlefish species distributed exclusively in the northern hemisphere. The Danube River and the Black Sea were originally inhabited by six sturgeon species but two are extinct and only four are still reproducing currently in the Lower Danube: Huso huso, Acipenser stellatus, A. gueldenstaedtii and A. ruthenus. Sturgeon species hybridiz...