The JAK/STAT signaling pathway plays important roles in vertebrate development and the regulation of complex cellular processes. Components of the pathway are conserved in Dictyostelium, Caenorhabditis, and Drosophila, yet the complete sequencing and annotation of the D. melanogaster and C. elegans genomes has failed to identify a receptor, raising the possibility that an alternative type of re...

River biodiversity is threatened globally by hydropower dams, and there a need to understand how dam management favors certain species while filtering out others. We examined aquatic invertebrate communities within the tailwaters 0–24 km downstream of seven large dams in Colorado Basin western United States. quantified dominance, richness, abundance, biomass at multiple locations individual acr...

several studies suggest that invertebrate abundance and richness are disrupted and reset at confluences. thus, junctions contribute disproportionately to the overall aquatic biodiversity of the river. in general terms, authors have reported high abundance and diversity due to the major physical heterogeneity at junctions. however, data are still scarce and uncertainties are plentiful.the impact...

Genomes of invertebrates and vertebrates exhibit highly divergent patterns of DNA methylation. Invertebrate genomes tend to be sparsely methylated, and DNA methylation is mostly targeted to a subset of transcription units (gene bodies). In a drastic contrast, vertebrate genomes are generally globally and heavily methylated, punctuated by the limited local hypo-methylation of putative regulatory...

previous studies showed that the level of total mercury (thg) in sanandaj gheshlagh reservoir (sgr) water is higher than those limits established by who (i.e., 1 µg/l). therefore a research project to evaluate the level of total mercury in sgr sediments and benthos masses during july to december 2009 from three different sites with different depths (2 to 30 meters) was carried out. samples were...

Pollen ranges from 2.5% to 61% protein content. Most pollen proteins are likely to be enzymes that function during pollen tube growth and subsequent fertilization, but the vast range of protein quantity may not reflect only pollen–pistil interactions. Because numerous vertebrate and invertebrate floral visitors consume pollen for protein, protein content may influence floral host choice. Additi...

Intercellular channels present in gap junctions allow cells to share small molecules and thus coordinate a wide range of behaviors. Remarkably, although junctions provide similar functions in all multicellular organisms, vertebrates and invertebrates use unrelated gene families to encode these channels. The recent identification of the invertebrate innexin family opens up powerful genetic syste...

Study of invertebrate animals, especially insects, in Pennsylvania has a long history dating from before Linnaeus (1750s) and includes some of the earliest publications on the North American fauna. During the 1800s, most native species of invertebrates in Pennsylvania were named, but basic information on the biology of only a few species was published. The fauna of adjacent states (especially N...