Cypermethrin is a synthetic pyrethroid class of insecticide. Toxic effects of cypermethrin were studied by selecting Marcia opima as an animal model. Cypermethrins effect on the total glycogen content of mantle, gill, foot, hepatopancreas, male gonad and a female gonad of an estuarine clam, Marcia opima was examined. The clams were exposed to 1.58 ppm cypermethrin for acute and 1/10th of that c...

The juveniles of M. malcolmsonii were exposed to 24.1 microg l(-1) of Hg fora period of 21 days. The gills and hepatopancreas of test prawns were sampled and processed for electron microscopic observations. Mitochondria are the organelle most affected in the gills of test prawns. The number of mitochondria and the electron-density of the matrix were found to be less in test prawns. The in-foldi...

To investigate the nutritional regulation of lipid metabolism in fish, molecular characterization of lipases was conducted in red sea bream Pagrus major, and the effects of fasting and refeeding on their gene expression was examined. Together with data from a previous study, a total of four lipase genes were identified and characterized as lipoprotein lipase (LPL), hepatic lipase (HL) and pancr...

Mosquito antennae provide sensory input that modulates host-seeking, mating and oviposition behaviors. Thus, mosquitoes must ensure the efficient transport of molecules into and out of these appendages. To accomplish this, mosquitoes and other insects have evolved antennal accessory pulsatile organs (APOs) that drive hemolymph into the antennal space. This study characterizes the structural mec...

This study aims to describe animal bacterial associations with culture independent methods. Bacterial communities in the hepatopancreas of the following 7 species of isopods (Pericaridea, Crustacea, Arthropoda) from 3 habitat types were investigated: 2 subtidal species Idotea baltica (IB) and I. wosnesenskii (IG); 2 intertidal species Ligia occidentalis (LO) and L. pallasii (LP), and 3 terrestr...

The scavenger receptor class B, type I (SR-BI), is a member of the CD36 superfamily comprising transmembrane proteins involved in mammalian and fish lipid homeostasis regulation. We hypothesize that this receptor plays an important role in Macrobrachium nipponense lipid metabolism. However, little attention has been paid to SR-BI in commercial crustaceans. In the present study, we report a cDNA...

Under hyper-salinity stress from freshwater to 17 and 25 ppt seawater, red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii largely accumulated D- and L-alanine together with glycine, L-glutamine, and L-proline in both muscle and hepatopancreas. The increases of D- and L-alanine in muscle were the highest in all amino acids and reached 6.8- and 5.4-fold, respectively, from freshwater to 25 ppt seawater. Thes...

A 28-days feeding experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of histamine on digestive physiology of the Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis. Four experimental diets were supplemented with histamine at 0, 1, 2, 4 g/kg. Histamine supplementation had no effect on growth. The activities of digestive enzyme decreased significantly at first (days 7 and 14) (p < 0.05) and then increased o...

Oysters are an ecologically important group of filter-feeders, and a valuable toxicology model for characterizing the potential impacts of nanoparticles to marine organisms. Fullerene (C60) exposure studies with oysters, Crassostrea virginica, were conducted with a variety of biological levels, e.g., developmental studies with embryos, whole organism exposures with adults, and isolated hepatopa...

A microbial process for removing cadmium from a homogenate of hepatopancreas, a waste of scallop processing, was devised to use this waste for value-added protein resources. Microorganisms were screened on the basis of the ability to remove cadmium from a medium with the initial concentration of 10 mg/l of cadmium. One soil isolate, identified as Xanthomonas sp. UR No. 2 by its taxonomical char...