Crustacean crustacyanin proteins are linked to the production and modification of carapace colour, with direct implications for fitness and survival. Here, the structural and functional properties of the two recombinant crustacyanin subunits H(1) and H(2) from the American lobster Homarus americanus are reported. The two subunits are structurally highly similar to the corresponding natural apo ...

Taylor et al. (1993) described a pollutant bioassay based upon a change in the rate at which Gammarus pulex (L.) consumes a novel food source (eggs of the brine shrimp Anemia salina) when the animals are stressed by exposure to a pollutant. The bioassay is rapid and non-destructive, and produces results with less variation than reported using conventional leaf-feeding bioassays. However, it is ...

In a small isolated lake in Slovakia, the fish acanthocephalan Pomphorhynchus laevis using Gammarus balcanicus and the minnow Phoxinus phoxinus, respectively, as its intermediate and final hosts, represented a dominant helminth species. Its prevalence and intensity of infection in fish showed no significant variation during a year fluctuating above the mean values of 89% and 6.6 worms per fish....

We studied the developmental acquisition of three of the cotransmitters found in the gastropyloric receptor (GPR) neurons of the stomatogastric nervous systems of the lobsters Homarus americanus and Homarus gammarus. By using wholemount immunocytochemistry and confocal microscopy, we examined the distribution of serotonin-like, allatostatin-like, and FLRF(NH2)-like immunoreactivities within the...

Nonnative species that form novel habitats strongly affect ecosystem processes. The effects of these ecosystem engineers can be both positive and negative but the mechanisms behind their effects are not well described. In this study we determined the relative importance of three main mechanisms by which invasive ecosystem engineers can facilitate native fauna. The engineer may provide new physi...