Endemic Ponto-Caspian gobies include a flock of 24 "neogobiin" species (containing the nominal genera and subgenera Apollonia, Babka, Neogobius, Mesogobius, Ponticola, and Proterorhinus; Teleostei: Gobiidae), of which a large proportion (5 species; 21%) recently escaped to invade other freshwater Eurasian systems and the North American Great Lakes. We provide its first comprehensive phylogeneti...

Considerable uncertainty exists in determination of the phylogeny among extant members of the Dreissenidae, especially those inhabiting the Ponto-Caspian basin, as multiple systematic revisions based on morphological characteristics have failed to resolve relationships within this group of bivalves. In this study we use DNA sequence analyses of two mitochondrial gene fragments, 16S rRNA and cyt...

Actinomycetes are interesting as a main producer of secondary metabolites and industrial antibiotics from marine environments. A total of 44 strains of actinomycetes were isolated from Caspian Sea sediments at a depth of 5-10 m. Preliminary screening was done using cross-streak method against 2 gram-positive and 4 gram-negative pathogen bacteria. The most potent strains MN2, MN3, MN38, MN39, MN...

BACKGROUND In order to meet the International Maritime Organization (IMO) objectives, the main purpose of this study was using the cheap and practical wastewater treatment system for low-strength bilge water of Caspian Sea ships; therefore, the low-strength bilge water of the Caspian Sea ships has been treated by up-flow anaerobic sludge fixed film (UASFF) reactor at the ambient temperature. ...

The Iranian population includes several ethnic groups scattered throughout Iran, which differ with regard to their rates for cancer. An infamous 'Asian esophageal cancer belt'stretches to the east from the Caspian littoral in Iran via Turkmenistan to the Northern provinces of China. Apart from the eastern part of the Caspian littoral area of Iran which has the highest incidence of esophageal ca...

labeling system for all exports. While CITES deliberates, Russian reports suggest that the Caspian nations will lobby for an increased quota, following their meeting in Moscow earlier this month. The Caspian nations’ reprieve comes as the community awaits word of a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list beluga as endangered. Such a ruling, now 2 months overdue, would ban all imp...

Non-indigenous species that become invasive are one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss worldwide. In various freshwater systems in Europe, populations of native amphipods and fish are progressively displaced by highly adaptive non-indigenous species that can perform explosive range extensions. A total of 40 Ponto-Caspian round gobies Neogobius melanostomus from the Rhine River near Düssel...

We introduce a novel algorithm for inference of causal gene interactions, termed CaSPIAN (Causal Subspace Pursuit for Inference and Analysis of Networks), which is based on coupling compressive sensing and Granger causality techniques. The core of the approach is to discover sparse linear dependencies between shifted time series of gene expressions using a sequential list-version of the subspac...

The genus Dreissena includes two widespread and aggressive aquatic invaders, the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, and the quagga mussel, Dreissena bugensis. This genus evolved in the Ponto-Caspian Sea basin, characterized by dynamic instability over multiple timescales and a unique evolutionary environment that may predispose to invasiveness. The objectives of this study were to gain insight...