—Because white sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus show no readily discernible external signs of gender, management agencies use surgical biopsies to determine the sex and stage of gonadal maturity of individuals. This procedure is highly invasive and can be difficult under field conditions. Therefore, gonadal tissue and blood were collected from white sturgeon captured in tribal and commercial fi...

Intraspecific and interspecific nucleotide sequence variations of the mtDNA control region (D-loop) were studied with mtDNAs isolated from tissue specimens of more than 1400 sturgeons of nine species: Russian sturgeon Acipenser gueldenstaedtii , Persian sturgeon A. persicus , Siberian sturgeon A. baerii , Amur sturgeon A. schrenkii , Fringebarbel sturgeon A. nudiventris , sterlet A. ruthenus , ...

The response to a panel of steroids by the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) from Amur sturgeon and tropical gar, two basal ray-finned fish, expressed in HEK293 cells was investigated. Half-maximal responses (EC50s) for transcriptional activation of sturgeon MR by 11-deoxycorticosterone, corticosterone, 11-deoxycortisol, cortisol and aldosterone, and progesterone (Prog) were between 13 and 150 pM...

The green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris), which is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean from Baja California to the Bering Sea, tends to be highly migratory, moving long distances among estuaries, spawning rivers, and distant coastal regions. Factors that determine the oceanic distribution of green sturgeon are unclear, but broad-scale physical conditions interacting with migration behavior may...

White sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) are the largest freshwater fish in North America and a species exposed to widespread fishing pressure. Despite the growing interest in recreational fishing for white sturgeon, little is known about the sublethal and lethal impacts of angling on released sturgeon. In summer (July 2014, mean water temperature 15.3°C) and winter (February 2015, mean water t...

The acute toxicity of cadmium, copper, and zinc to white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were determined for 7 developmental life stages in flow-through water-only exposures. Metal toxicity varied by species and by life stage. Rainbow trout were more sensitive to cadmium than white sturgeon across all life stages, with median effect concentrations (har...

Acipenseriformes (sturgeon and paddlefish) are basal actinopterygians with a highly derived cranial morphology that is characterized by an anatomical independence of the jaws from the neurocranium. We examined the morphological and kinematic basis of prey capture in the Acipenseriform fish Scaphirhynchus albus, the pallid sturgeon. Feeding pallid sturgeon were filmed in lateral and ventral view...

Common DNA-based sexing assays have been widely used for the conservation and management of mammals and birds. However, many fishes do not have genetic sex determination and in those that do, the plasticity of the genes involved means that species-specific assays are normally required. Such DNAsexing markers would be especially valuable in lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) because of their s...

Eleven triand tetra-meric motif microsatellite loci were identified in a lake sturgeon genomic library and were tested against the six North American species of Acipenser (lake sturgeon, A. fulvescens; shortnose sturgeon, A. brevirostrum; white sturgeon, A. transmontanus; green sturgeon, A. medirostris; Atlantic sturgeon, A. oxyrhynchus oxyrhynchus; gulf sturgeon, A. o. desotoi) and the two spe...

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is an emerging sampling method that has been used successfully for detection of rare aquatic species. The Identification of sampling tools that are less stressful for target organisms has become increasingly important for rare and endangered species. A decline in abundance of the Southern Distinct Population Segment (DPS) of North American Green Sturgeon located in Cali...