BACKGROUND A third of all known freshwater mollusk extinctions worldwide have occurred within a single medium-sized American drainage. The Mobile River Basin (MRB) of Alabama, a global hotspot of temperate freshwater biodiversity, was intensively industrialized during the 20(th) century, driving 47 of its 139 endemic mollusk species to extinction. These include the ancylinid limpet Rhodacmea fi...

Climate projections forecast more extreme interannual climate variability over time, with an increase in the severity and duration of extreme drought and rainfall events. Based on bioclimatic envelope models, it is projected that changing precipitation patterns will drastically alter the spatial distributions and density of plants and be a primary driver of biodiversity loss. However, many othe...

In 2012, world mollusk production in aquaculture reached a volume of 15,171,000 tons, representing 23% of total aquaculture production and positioning mollusks as the second most important category of aquaculture products (fishes are the first). Clams and oysters are the mollusk species with the highest production levels, followed in descending order by mussels, scallops, and abalones. In view ...

Glycans participate in bio-communication, such as cell to cell recognition, sperm-egg recognition and embryonic development because they have the property of storing biological signals in forms that can be identified by other biological systems, such as anti-glycan antibodies and glycan binding proteins or lectins. Aberrant arise at the cell surface in many diseases, including cancer, and alter...

Abstract Global pollution by plastics derived from petroleum has fostered the development of carbon–neutral, biodegradable bioplastics synthesized renewable resources such as modern biomass, yet knowledge on impact ecosystems is limited. Here we review polylactic acid plastic with focus synthesis, biodegradability tuning, environmental conversion to microplastics, and microbes, algae, phytoplan...

Many natural materials exhibit extraordinary combinations of mechanical properties which are achieved through highly tailored and organized hierarchical microstructures. In particular, materials which function as natural body armor, such as mollusk shells, possess a structure with important features and properties at a variety of length scales, from the various constituent building blocks to th...

GonaCon is a single-shot immunocontraceptive vaccine that targets the reproductive hormone gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH). The GnRH peptide used in the vaccine is secreted by the hypothalamus of the brain and is specifically known as luteinizing hormone releasing hormone. This peptide stimulates the synthesis and secretion of luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone by the an...

BACKGROUND The Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas (Mollusca, Lophotrochozoa) is an alternative and irregular protandrous hermaphrodite: most individuals mature first as males and then change sex several times. Little is known about genetic and phenotypic basis of sex differentiation in oysters, and little more about the molecular pathways regulating reproduction. We have recently developed and va...

Shell microstructures in some of the oldest known mollusk fossils (from the early to middle Cambrian Period; 542 to 510 million years ago) are diverse, strong, and in some cases unusual. We herein review our recent work focused on different aspects of shell microstructures in Cambrian mollusks, briefly summarizing some of the major conclusions from a few of our recent publications and adding so...

Biologically controlled mineralization features an orchestrated balance among various controlling factors such as spatial delineation, template promotion, crystal growth modification and cessation, and so on. Highly ordered calcium carbonate lamellae formed in the nacreous layers of mollusk (aragonite), the foliated calcitic layers of mollusk (calcite), or the semi-nacre of brachiopods (calcite...