the invertebrate communities of the northern chilean rivers are characterised by their marked endemism andspecificity of their community structure in different basins. the river systems located in the atacama desert are endorheicand are affected by the rainy period of january-february commonly known as the “bolivian winter“. the present study isthe first report on the observations of arthropods...

this study was conducted to assess water quality level of zarin gol stream on macrobenthic invertebrates. macrobenthic fauna were sampled from 9 selected sampling stations along the stream with an average distance of 22 km by using a surber sampler every 45 days during the year. sampling was replicated 9 times in each sampling station. collected samples were fixed with 4% formalin, isolated, an...

Dendrites are the entry site of neural signals into neurons. Once formed, dendrites are not just the same in structure but rather are dynamically remodeled in vivo: some dendrites are pruned away, while others lengthen and branch out. Dendritic remodeling occurs not only during neural development, but also in mature dendrites under both physiological and pathological conditions, suggesting its ...

Two large collections of Conus from the Galapagos Islands permitted the analysis of size, sex ratio, and food of 4 of the estimated 13 species of Conus present in the islands. The species investigated were C. diadema, C. lucidus, C. tiaratus, and C. nux. Significantly unequal sex ratios were found in the samples of C. diadema, C. lucidus, and C. tiaratus, but there was no indication of sexual d...

The red pigment in the eyes of the squid, blue crab, and horseshoe crab becomes photosensitive when treated with formalin, and bleaches in the light. The resulting change in density is approximately symmetrical around a maximum at 480 mmicro in the blue green. This difference absorption spectrum is in rough agreement with the spectral sensitivity of the cephalopod eye and differs only slightly ...

Specific interactions between host genotypes and pathogen genotypes (G×G interactions) are commonly observed in invertebrate systems. Such specificity challenges our current understanding of invertebrate defenses against pathogens because it contrasts the limited discriminatory power of known invertebrate immune responses. Lack of a mechanistic explanation, however, has questioned the nature of...

The structure of the single gene encoding the cytoplasmic intermediate filament (IF) proteins in non-neuronal cells of the gastropod Helix aspersa is described. Genomic and cDNA sequences show that the gene is composed of 10 introns and 11 exons, spanning greater than 60 kb of DNA. Alternative RNA processing accounts for two mRNA families which encode two IF proteins differing only in their C-t...

1. The CNS from invertebrate animals such as slugs, snails, leeches, and cockroaches, can be isolated and kept alive for many hours. 2. The electrical and pharmacological properties of invertebrate CNS neurons have many similarities and it is probable that the basic rules governing the CNS evolved more than 600 million years ago. 3. The nerve cells can show sodium action potentials, calcium act...

In recent years, much effort has been made in identifying microRNA (miRNA) genes from mammals, insects, worms, plants, and viruses. Continuing the search for more miRNA genes is still important but difficult. This paper presents a computational strategy based on comparative genomics analysis. The algorithm was used to scan four invertebrate genomes, Drosophila melangoster, Bombyx mori, Apis mel...

Iridoviruses (IVs) are classified into five genera: Iridovirus and Chloriridovirus, whose members infect invertebrates, and Ranavirus, Lymphocystivirus, and Megalocytivirus, whose members infect vertebrates. Until now, Chloriridovirus was the only IV genus for which a representative and complete genomic sequence was not available. Here, we report the genome sequence and comparative analysis of ...