Tissues of rodents and host-seeking adult ticks collected in the Piedmont, Sandhills, Coastal Plain, and Coastal Zone of South Carolina were cultured in attempts to isolate Borrelia burgdorferi (Johnson, Schmid, Hyde, Steigerwalt & Brenner), the etiologic agent of Lyme disease. An exploratory, tree-based statistical analysis was used to identify ecological variables that were associated with sp...

the aim of this work was to analyze the fatty acid profile in persian gulf shrimp, metapenaeus affinis that is one of the edible and well-known shrimps and has suitable amount of fatty acids specific polyunsaturated fatty acids (pufa). it has been reported that, a high dietary consumption of marine n-3 fatty acids may prevent the development of atherosclerosis and thrombosis. the fatty acids pr...

23 In the San Francisco Estuary, management actions including tidal marsh restoration could 24 change fish mercury (Hg) concentrations. From 2005 to 2007, small forage fish were 25 collected and analyzed to identify spatial and interannual variation in biotic 26 methylmercury (MeHg) exposure. The average whole body total Hg concentration was 27 0.052 µg g-1 (wet weight) for 457 composite sample...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the levels of heavy metal bioconcentration of the mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) in Shadegan international wetland. Sampling including the water, waterbed sediment and mosquitofish was carried out from the selected sampling sites during October and November 2011, and analyzed by the ICP-OES. Results show that the water has poor qualitative condition, a...

Peritrich ciliates are commonly found as epibionts, colonizing living organisms, or attached to non-living substrates in freshwater, estuarine and marine environments. Several species of peritrich epibionts are obligate, which means that they are able to only colonize other organisms, while others are facultative attaching to living or non-living substrates. The peritrich Zoothamnium intermediu...

Population genetics models show that, under certain conditions, the X chromosome is expected to be under more efficient selection than the autosomes. This could lead to 'faster-X evolution', if a large proportion of mutations are fixed by positive selection, as suggested by recent studies in Drosophila. We used a multispecies approach to test this: Muller's element D, an autosomal arm, is fused...

Performing proteomic studies on non-model organisms with little or no genomic information is still difficult. However, many specific processes and biochemical pathways occur only in species that are poorly characterized at the genomic level. For example, many plants can reproduce both sexually and asexually, the first one allowing the generation of new genotypes and the latter their fixation. T...

How organisms may adapt to rising global temperatures is uncertain, but concepts can emerge from studying adaptive physiological trait variations across existing spatial climate gradients. Many ectotherms, particularly fish, have evolved increasing genetic growth capacities with latitude (i.e. countergradient variation (CnGV) in growth), which are thought to be an adaptation primarily to strong...

Predator density, refuge availability, and body size of prey can all affect the mortality rate of prey. We assume that more predators will lead to an increase in prey mortality rate, but behavioral interactions between predators and prey, and availability of refuge, may lead to nonlinear effects of increased number of predators on prey mortality rates. We tested for nonlinear effects in prey mo...