Crustaceans are a diverse and ancient group of arthropods that have long been studied as interesting model systems in biology, especially for understanding animal evolution and physiology and for environmentally relevant studies. Like many model systems, advances in DNA-sequencing methodologies have led to a large amount of genomics-related projects. The purpose of this article is to highlight ...

Using a database that includes nearly half (46%) of the estimated 68,000 described species of extant crustaceans, as well as the names of the authors who described each species and the date of description, we plotted the number of species described vs. year of description to examine rates of, and trends in, crustacean species descriptions over time. Plots were generated for all crustaceans and ...

BACKGROUND With the emergence of a completed genome sequence of the freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex, construction of genomic-scale sequence databases for additional crustacean sequences are important for comparative genomics and annotation. Porcelain crabs, genus Petrolisthes, have been powerful crustacean models for environmental and evolutionary physiology with respect to thermal adaptati...

The copepod crustacean Calanus finmarchicus plays a critical role in the ecology of the Gulf of Maine and other regions of the North Atlantic. To increase our understanding of the physiology of this species, a normalized, whole organism cDNA library was constructed, and expressed sequence tags (ESTs) of the clones were generated. Among these ESTs was one with homology to known cDNAs encoding pr...

Crustacean motor pattern-generating networks have played central roles in understanding the cellular and network bases of rhythmic motor patterns for over half a century. We review here the four best investigated of these systems: the stomatogastric, ventilatory, cardiac, and swimmeret systems. Generally applicable observations arising from this work include (1) neurons with active, endogenous ...

<1> Abstract In addition to their role as important preparations for research, crustaceans have served as model systems for teaching basic principles of signal transmission in nervous systems, particularly in student laboratory classes. We survey published and other easily available crustacean preparations used in neuroscience teaching, focusing on neuromuscular properties, synaptic transmissio...

New neurons continue to be born and integrated into the brains of adult decapod crustaceans. Evidence in crayfish indicates that the 1st-generation neural precursors that generate these adult-born neurons originate in the immune system and travel to the neurogenic niche via the circulatory system. These precursors are attracted to the niche, become integrated amongst niche cells, and undergo mi...

SYNOPSIS. The crustacean mandibular organ (MO) produces methyl farnesoate (MF), a juvenile hormone-related compound thought to have roles in crustacean reproduction and development. Therefore, the control of MF production by the MO has been of considerable interest. Current evidence indicates that the MO is negatively regulated by peptides present in the eyestalk (MO inhibiting factor, MOIH). S...

During the spring clear-water phase of 1993, an enclosure experiment was performed in the mesotrophic Schohsee (Plon, FRG) in order to assess the impact of crustacean zooplankton on the rotifer and phytoplankton community. Among the crustacean plankton, calanoid and cyclopoid copepods were abundant, but Daphnia 'longispina' reached the highest densities in this experiment. The colonial rotifer ...