Isolated mitotic apparatuses (MA) of clam and sea urchin eggs were investigated by polarizing and electron microscopy. Examination of fixed MA in oils of different refractive index revealed that at least 90% of the retardation of isolated MA is due to positive, form birefringence, the remaining retardation deriving from positive, intrinsic birefringence. Electron micrographs reveal the isolated...

The effect of antimycin A on the respiration of fresh potato (Solanum tuberosum var. Russet Burbank) slices has been determined in the presence and absence of m-chlorobenzhydroxamic acid (CLAM). Two antimycin-binding sites are indicated. At low concentrations antimycin alone inhibits respiration only slightly. When CLAM and low antimycin are added together, respiration is sharply inhibited, as ...

On the northeastern coast of the United States and Canada, Mya arenaria, the soft shell clam, develops a diffuse, hemopoetic tumor (a fatal leukemia-like cancer) resulting from inactivation of p53-like family member proteins.These malignant cells provide a model for an unrelated set of human cancer cells that are also characterized by mortalin-based cytoplasmic sequestration of wild-type p53 tu...

Mercury is a hazardous pollutant in the Bohai marine environments due to its high toxicity to the marine organisms and subsequent ecological risk. Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum is one of important sentinel organisms in 'Mussel Watch Program' launched in China and therefore used as a bioindicator in marine and coastal ecotoxicology. There are dominantly distributed three pedigrees of clam ...

The clam R. decussatus is a suspension-feeding bivalve mollusc widely distributed in European and Mediterranean coastal waters. Due to its economic importance it is extensively cultured in many countries, and particularly in Portugal where its production represents > 80 % of total shellfish production. The selection of the clam R. decussatus as a bioindicator was a consequence of its economic i...

Advances in computer networks that support the invocation of remote services in heterogeneous environments enable new levels of software composition. In order to manage composition at such a high level we envision a need for purely compositional languages. We introduce the CLAM composition language, a megaprogramming language. By breaking up the traditional CALL statement the CLAM language focu...

Background Statins are currently the preferred agent for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. However, myalgia, increased serum levels of creatinekinase (CK) and even rhabdomyolysis may occur, characterizing the cholesterol lowering agents myopathy (CLAM), with a multifactorial aetiology. In statin monotherapy, the incidence of CLAM is 0.1 to 0.5 % and is dose related. RYR1 (ryanodine 1) gene...

Cell-free extracts prepared from activated clam oocytes contain factors which induce phosphorylation of the single 67-kD lamin (L67), disassemble clam oocyte nuclei, and cause chromosome condensation in vitro (Dessev, G., R. Palazzo, L. Rebhun, and R. Goldman. 1989. Dev. Biol. 131:469-504). To identify these factors, we have fractionated the oocyte extracts. The nuclear lamina disassembly (NLD)...

The ability of pathogens to neutralize host defence mechanisms represents a fundamental requisite in the successful establishment of an infection. Host-pathogen interactions between quahog parasite unknown (QPX) and its hard clam host are poorly understood. Our prior in vivo investigations have shown that different QPX isolates display varying levels of pathogenicity toward clams. Similarly, fi...

Recent studies have examined lipophilic marine toxins (LMTs) in shellfish and toxic algae worldwide, but the occurrence and seasonal variations of LMTs in commercial clams (including Mactra veneriformis, Ruditapes philippinarum, Meretrix meretrix, and Cyclina sinensis) at their major culturing area in Jiangsu, China, remain largely unexplored. In this study, a new solid phase extraction (SPE) i...