Carotenoid compositions of two freshwater Gammarus species (Crustacea: Amphipoda) and of their common acanthocephalan parasite Polymorphus minutus were characterized. The effect of carotenoid uptake by the parasite was addressed by comparing the carotenoid content of uninfected and infected female hosts. Using high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), co-chromatography of reference pigments a...

Ecological linkages between species diversity in communities and genetic diversity in populations have potential to influence the assembly of communities in habitats recovering from human disturbance, but few studies have attempted to synthesize relationships between these levels of biological organization, especially for locally adapted species. No such studies have been done in freshwater eco...

(a) BlCel5B in the crystallographic and closed configuration; (b) Bacillus halodurans Cel5B (BhCel5B) (PDB id: 4V2X) (c) Piromyces rhizinflata GH5 endoglucanase (PDB id: 3AYR); (d) Clostridium cellulolyticum GH5 endoglucanase (PDB id: 1EDG); (e) Clostridium cellulovorans GH5 endoglucanase (PDB id: 3NDY); (f) Bacteroides ovatus GH5 xyloglucanase (PDB id: 3ZMR); (g) Paenibacillus pabuli GH5 xylog...

Morphological characteristics of the acanthocephalan Polymorphus minutus (Goeze, 1782), which was collected from duck Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus in Czech Republic, are described. The mitochondrial (mt) genome P. sequenced, with a total length 14,149 bp, comprising 36 genes including 12 protein coding (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) and two ribosomal (rrnL rrnS). This is similar to mt genomes ot...

Trophically-transmitted parasites often change the phenotype of their intermediate hosts in ways that increase their vulnerability to definitive hosts, hence favouring transmission. As a "collateral damage", manipulated hosts can also become easy prey for non-host predators that are dead ends for the parasite, and which are supposed to play no role in transmission strategies. Interestingly, inf...

Larval helminths often share individual intermediate hosts with other larval worms of the same or different species. In the case of immature acanthocephalans capable of altering the phenotype of their intermediate hosts, the benefits or costs of host sharing can be evaluated in terms of increased or decreased probability of transmission to a suitable definitive host. Competitive interactions am...

Proteolytic, aminopeptidase, endopeptidase and carboxypeptidase activities of seven strains of rumen anaerobic fungi, selected to represent the fungal population commonly found in the rumen, were investigated in vitro. Whatever the nitrogen source included in the culture medium, a proteolytic activity against the 14C-labelled casein was detected in only one fungal strain. This strain belonged t...

This paper provides a detailed redescription of the adult and the first morphological description of all juvenile stages of Scutovertex sculptus. Specimens from four European countries, Austria, Germany, France and Spain were investigated. The species specific characters are the broadened posterior notogastral setae (lp, h1–h3), the slightly broadened anterior notogastral seta (dm), the gastron...