The goal of the research presented here was to examine phenotypic plasticity exhibited by three morphotypes of the common Caribbean sponge Anthosigmella varians (Duchassaing & Michelotti). We were interested in examining the biotic (and, to a lesser extent, abiotic) factors responsible for branch production in this species. We also tested the hypothesis that the skeleton may serve an antipredat...

Three new species of Mesacanthion Filipjev, 1927 were found along Patagonian coasts (Argentina). bifidum sp. nov. is characterized by short labial and cephalic setae, onchia equal size, spicule arcuate, gubernaculum with caudal apophysis, ending in two teeth. The related to M. virile (Ditlevsen, 1930) De Coninck & Schuurmans Stekhoven, 1933. However, the spicules both are different shape. l...

Animal bodies are shaped by skeletons, which are built inside the body by biomineralization of condensed mesenchymal cells in vertebrates [1, 2] and echinoderms [3, 4], or outside the body by apical secretion of extracellular matrices by epidermal cell layers in arthropods [5]. In each case, the skeletons' shapes are a direct reflection of the pattern of skeleton-producing cells [6]. Here we re...

Variations in K(+) channel composition allow for differences in cell excitability and, at an organismal level, provide flexibility to behavioral regulation. When the function of a K(+) channel is disrupted, the remaining K(+) channels might incompletely compensate, manifesting as abnormal organismal behavior. In this study, we explored how different K(+) channels interact to regulate the neurom...

One of the important parameters of the ubiquitous spicules rising intermittently above the surface of the Sun is the variation of spicule spline orientation with respect to the solar coordinates, presumably reflecting the focusing of ejection by the coronal magnetic field. Here we first use a method of tracing limb spicules using a combination of second derivative operators in multiple directio...

The enzymatic-silicatein mediated formation of the skeletal elements, the spicules of siliceous sponges starts intracellularly and is completed extracellularly. With Suberites domuncula we show that the axial growth of the spicules proceeds in three phases: (I) formation of an axial canal; (II) evagination of a cell process into the axial canal, and (III) assembly of the axial filament composed...

To adapt to a wide range of physically demanding environmental conditions, biological systems have evolved a diverse variety of robust skeletal architectures. One such example, Euplectella aspergillum, is a sediment-dwelling marine sponge that is anchored into the sea floor by a flexible holdfast apparatus consisting of thousands of anchor spicules (long, hair-like glassy fibers). Each spicule ...

Spicules of 9 Meloidogyne, 2 Heterodera, 3 Globodera, and 12 other plant-parasitic, insect-parasitic, and free-living nematodes were excised and examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Gubernacula of some of the species were also excised, and their structure was determined. The two spicules of all species examined were symmetrically identical in morphology. The spicule typically cons...

Three new species of Fergusobia, respectively collected from shoot bud galls on narrow-leaved Melaleuca spp. in Australia, are described. Fergusobia armillarisae n. sp. Davies is characterised by the combination of an arcuate to open C-shaped parthenogenetic female with an extensile uterus and a short, conoid tail, an arcuate infective female with a broadly rounded tail tip, and an arcuate male...