Four specimens of the olive sea snake, Aipysurus laevis, were collected off the coast of Western Australia, and the venom proteome was characterized and quantitatively estimated by RP-HPLC, SDS-PAGE, and MALDI-TOF-TOF analyses. A. laevis venom is remarkably simple and consists of phospholipases A2 (71.2%), three-finger toxins (3FTx; 25.3%), cysteine-rich secretory proteins (CRISP; 2.5%), and tr...

Eggs from Xenopus laevis are surrounded by several layers of jelly that are needed for proper fertilization. Jelly coat is composed of high-molecular-mass glycoconjugates to which are bound many globular proteins. O-glycans released from the jelly coat of X. laevis have been partially described in previous studies. In this study, we compared the glycosylation pattern of the egg jelly coat isola...

Xenopus laevis is a long established model organism for developmental, behavioral and neurological studies. Herein, an updated genome-wide survey was conducted using the ongoing genome project of Xenopus laevis and 106 non-redundant Basic Helix-Loop-Helix (bHLH) genes were identified in the Xenopus laevis genome databases. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment statistics showed 51 significant GO annota...

We investigated the effects of phenolic and phenol compounds on 3,3',5-L-125I-triiodothyronine (125I-T3) binding to purified Xenopus laevis transthyretin (xTTR) and to the ligand-binding domain of X. laevis thyroid hormone receptor beta (xTR LBD), on T3-induced metamorphosis in X. laevis tadpoles and on the induction of T3-dependent reporter gene in a X. laevis cell line. Of the halogenated phe...

We have cloned the full-length complementary DNA (cDNA) for a GnRH receptor from Xenopus laevis pituitary cDNA and determined its gene structure. The cDNA encodes a 368-amino acid protein that has a 46% amino acid identity to the human GnRH receptor. The X laevis GnRH receptor has all of the amino acids identified in the mammalian GnRH receptors as sites of interaction with the GnRH ligand. How...

The evolutionary trajectories of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) receptor remain enigmatic since the discovery of physiologically functional GHRH-GHRH receptor (GHRHR) in non-mammalian vertebrates in 2007. Interestingly, subsequent studies have described the identification of a GHRHR(2) in chicken in addition to the GHRHR and the closely related paralogous receptor, PACAP-related peptid...

41 Four specimens of the olive sea snake, Aipysurus laevis, were collected off the 42 coast of Western Australia, and the venom proteome was characterized and 43 quantitatively estimated by RP-HPLC, SDS-PAGE, and MALDI-TOF-TOF analyses. A. 44 laevis venom is remarkably simple and consists of phospholipases A2 (71.2%), three45 finger toxins (3FTx; 25.3%), cysteine-rich secretory proteins (CRISP;...

We observed a slight drop in the growth of Xenopus laevis and Pseudacris triseriata larvae following acute exposure (24-48 h) during egg development to three concentrations of TCDD (0.3, 3.0, 30.0 microg/l). Our exposure protocol was modeled on a previous investigation that was designed to mimic the effects of maternal deposition of TCDD. The doses selected were consistent with known rates of m...

The widespread African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) occurs in sympatry with the IUCN Endangered Cape platanna (Xenopus gilli) throughout its entire range in the south-western Cape, South Africa. In order to investigate aspects of the interspecific competition between populations of X. laevis and X. gilli, an assessment of their niche differentiation was conducted through a comprehensive study o...