Hasil untuk "Zoology"

R. Estes, K. Queiroz, J. Gauthier

W. Lewis

J. G. Carter

J. P. D. Magalhães, Joana Cósta

J. Tobias, N. Seddon, C. Spottiswoode et al.

Xue Du, Duoxi Li, Luya Jia et al.

Chicken semen cryopreservation is crucial for utilizing high-quality cockerel genetics, but semen is highly sensitive to cryoinjury, leading to poor preservation outcomes. This study aimed to establish a theoretical foundation for selecting cockerels for semen cryopreservation through serum testing and to improve semen quality via DNA methylation editing. Semen and serum samples were collected from 102 Xiaoshan cockerels, with semen cryopreserved and thawed following standardized protocols. Post-thaw semen quality and serum testosterone (T) levels were assessed. Eight cockerels were selected based on motile sperm quality, and whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) was used to analyze sperm DNA methylation. The results showed a significant positive correlation between serum T levels and sperm motility. There were notable differences in sperm motility and serum T levels between high-quality and low-quality semen groups but no differences in estradiol (E₂), superoxide dismutase (SOD), or glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) levels. A total of 217 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) and 116 differentially methylated genes (DMGs) were identified. Key genes such as <i>PRKACB</i> (protein kinase, cAMP-dependent, catalytic, beta) and <i>ACSL1</i> (long-chain-fatty-acid--CoA ligase 1) were associated with sperm motility. These findings provide important insights for improving semen cryopreservation and contribute to breeding practices and the development of cryoprotectants.

Prabhakar Yellanur Konda, Vijayakumar Poondla, Krishna Kumar Jaiswal et al.

Marian W. Makins

Julianna Szulamit Szapu, József Lanszki, Péter Pongrácz et al.

Abstract The common hamster (Cricetus cricetus) occupies a controversial position among mammals inhabiting agricultural areas, as it is possibly the only critically endangered species that is legally targeted by lethal control methods, making it a conflict‐generating pest. We surveyed various stakeholders, agrarian consultants, wildlife rangers, and residents for the first time in Hungary, with two interrelated questionnaires to obtain accurate information about hamster populations, and to learn about the participants knowledge of, and attitude toward hamsters in order to provide fundamental information for planning and strengthening social embeddedness. Additionally, we prepared the current distribution map of the hamster. Based on the relatively wide distribution and locally high abundance of the species, Hungary has a key role in hamster conservation. We identified several factors, which can contribute to successful species protection. The results indicated that more than 60% of the respondent's liked hamsters. In contrast, only a few residents considered hamsters in their settlement to be beneficial. Our results suggest that the hamster's reputation is disproportionately negative due to vaguely known perceptions of harm as compared with actual reported damage. This imbalance could be rectified through enhanced communication efforts. Improving the species' reputation is integral to effective species conservation initiatives. Current pest control practices (poisons and snap traps) kill the hamsters, even though 82% of the residents would prefer to keep the hamsters alive, conforming to conservation efforts. The results also indicated that the hamster could be a flagship species in Hungary. Knowledge of the protected status of the hamster predicted a positive attitude toward the species and related to nature conservation consciousness. We conclude that requirements of residents should be included in the species action plan along with the experts' knowledge, as this could contribute to successful, long‐term conservation of the hamster.

Yuhang Yang, Xiaoxiao Zhang, Jing Liu et al.

The genus Micrencaustes Crotch, 1876 (Coleoptera, Cucujoidea, Erotylidae, Erotylinae, Encaustini) includes 44 known species worldwide, 11 species having been reported to occur in China. In recent years, species of genus Micrencaustes in China are constantly being discovered, mainly distributed in southern China.A new species, Micrencaustes (Mimencaustes) occulta sp. nov., is described and illustrated. Two species, Micrencaustes (Mimencaustes) divisa Arrow, 1925 and Micrencaustes (Micrencaustes) navicularis Arrow, 1921 are recorded from China for the first time. The morphological characteristics of adults of new species are re-described in detail and illustrated. A key to Chinese species of the genus Micrencaustes is provided. The specimens of new species was collected from Yunnan Province and the specimens of Micrencaustes (Mimencaustes) divisa Arrow, 1925 and Micrencaustes (Micrencaustes) navicularis Arrow, 1921 were collected from Hainan Province and Guangdong Province and deposited in the Museum of Hebei University and Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Holly K. Kindsvater, Maria‐José Juan‐Jordá, Nicholas K. Dulvy et al.

Abstract Understanding how growth and reproduction will adapt to changing environmental conditions is a fundamental question in evolutionary ecology, but predicting the responses of specific taxa is challenging. Analyses of the physiological effects of climate change upon life history evolution rarely consider alternative hypothesized mechanisms, such as size‐dependent foraging and the risk of predation, simultaneously shaping optimal growth patterns. To test for interactions between these mechanisms, we embedded a state‐dependent energetic model in an ecosystem size‐spectrum to ask whether prey availability (foraging) and risk of predation experienced by individual fish can explain observed diversity in life histories of fishes. We found that asymptotic growth emerged from size‐based foraging and reproductive and mortality patterns in the context of ecosystem food web interactions. While more productive ecosystems led to larger body sizes, the effects of temperature on metabolic costs had only small effects on size. To validate our model, we ran it for abiotic scenarios corresponding to the ecological lifestyles of three tuna species, considering environments that included seasonal variation in temperature. We successfully predicted realistic patterns of growth, reproduction, and mortality of all three tuna species. We found that individuals grew larger when environmental conditions varied seasonally, and spawning was restricted to part of the year (corresponding to their migration from temperate to tropical waters). Growing larger was advantageous because foraging and spawning opportunities were seasonally constrained. This mechanism could explain the evolution of gigantism in temperate tunas. Our approach addresses variation in food availability and individual risk as well as metabolic processes and offers a promising approach to understand fish life‐history responses to changing ocean conditions.

R. Mittermeier, J. Ratsimbazafy, A. Rylands et al.

Jacob E. Hill, T. Devault, J. Belant

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/icwdm_usdanwrc Part of the Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons, Other Environmental Sciences Commons, Other Veterinary Medicine Commons, Population Biology Commons, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons, Veterinary Infectious Diseases Commons, Veterinary Microbiology and Immunobiology Commons, Veterinary Preventive Medicine, Epidemiology, and Public Health Commons, and the Zoology Commons

J. Weinstock, E. Willerslev, A. Sher et al.

Y. M. Lozano, C. Aguilar‐Trigueros, I. Flaig et al.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2020 The Authors. Functional Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society 1Plant Ecology, Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany 2Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), Berlin, Germany 3Applied Zoology/Animal Ecology, Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

U. Steiner

DNA is the hereditary material presents in all the cells of the body. This molecule presents some characterizes, as VNTR, unique present in different individual. This is a key in the development of some techniques, in this case DNA fingerprinting. This procedure has simple steps that we will review in this work. DNA fingerprinting technique has become an important tool for scientific research, we will review some applications in fields like forensic investigations and parentage testing, moreover how this technique has revolutionized and evolved in areas as Anthropological genetics, botany and zoology.

Diana Cárdenas-Ramos, María C. Mandujano, Julio C. Estrada-Álvarez et al.

El consumo de recompensas y estructuras florales por parte de las cucarachas silvestres, así como su función polinizadora en los ecosistemas naturales ha sido escasamente estudiado. El objetivo de este trabajo es describir las actividades que realiza Latiblattella tarasca en las flores y cladodios de cuatro especies de Opuntia (O. cantabrigiensis, O. robusta, O. tomentosa y O. streptacantha). En abril de 2018 se realizaron recorridos nocturnos durante tres días en un sector semidesértico de Querétaro, México. Se registró la cantidad de individuos, sexo, estado de desarrollo y la actividad que realizaba L. tarasca. En O. robusta, O. tomentosa y O. streptacantha, L. tarasca realizaba recorridos frecuentes en los cladodios y escasas visitas en las flores; es posible que la baja abundancia de flores condicione la cantidad de cucarachas observadas en estas cactáceas. Las hembras y ninfas fueron las más abundantes en el sitio de estudio. Se observó a L. tarasca recolectar segmentos del perianto, estambres de flores secas y polen de flores cerradas de O. cantabrigiensis, por lo que esta especie puede ser considerada como florívora y polinívora; esta conducta de alimentación no influye negativamente en la polinización de las flores de O. cantabrigiensis, ya que la acción ocurre en flores en post-antesis. No obstante, O. cantabrigiensis es la única especie que presenta una frecuencia baja de flores de antesis nocturna, dejando la posibilidad de que L. tarasca funja como un potencial polinizador de esta cactácea.

Maojun Zhou, Manyi Yang, Huiling Wen et al.

Abstract Background: Conotoxins exhibit great potential as neuropharmacology tools and therapeutic candidates due to their high affinity and specificity for ion channels, neurotransmitter receptors or transporters. The traditional methods to discover new conotoxins are peptide purification from the crude venom or gene amplification from the venom duct. Methods: In this study, a novel O1 superfamily conotoxin Tx6.7 was directly cloned from the genomic DNA of Conus textile using primers corresponding to the conserved intronic sequence and 3’ UTR elements. The mature peptide of Tx6.7 (DCHERWDWCPASLLGVIYCCEGLICFIAFCI) was synthesized by solid-phase chemical synthesis and confirmed by mass spectrometry. Results: Patch clamp experiments on rat DRG neurons showed that Tx6.7 inhibited peak calcium currents by 59.29 ± 2.34% and peak potassium currents by 22.33 ± 7.81%. In addition, patch clamp on the ion channel subtypes showed that 10 μM Tx6.7 inhibited 56.61 ± 3.20% of the hCaV1.2 currents, 24.67 ± 0.91% of the hCaV2.2 currents and 7.30 ± 3.38% of the hNaV1.8 currents. Tx6.7 had no significant toxicity to ND7/23 cells and increased the pain threshold from 0.5 to 4 hours in the mouse hot plate assay. Conclusion: Our results suggested that direct cloning of conotoxin sequences from the genomic DNA of cone snails would be an alternative approach to obtaining novel conotoxins. Tx6.7 could be used as a probe tool for ion channel research or a therapeutic candidate for novel drug development.

J. Mann

Zhiming Zhang, Song Zhang, Kangkang Nie et al.

We investigated the effect and interaction of lysolecithin (LPL) and nutrition level on growth performance, nutrient ileal digestibility, expression of growth-related genes and nutrient transporter genes in broilers. A total of 1280 one day old Ross 308 mixed sex chicks with an average body weight 42.23 ± 2.4 g were randomly allotted into 2 × 2 factorial arrangement (20 replicates per treatment and 16 chickens per replicate) with two types of diet (Normal nutrition treatments starter, grower and finisher diets with ME of 3000 kcal/kg, 3100 kcal/kg and 3200 kcal/kg, respectively, and CP level of 22%, 21%, and 20%, respectively; high nutrition treatments diets with 50 kcal/kg ME and 0.5% CP higher than normal nutrition treatment at each stage). Two levels of LPL supplementation (0 and 500 mg/kg) were also employed. From day 21 to day 35 and full stage of the experiment, the birds fed a high nutrition (HN) diet had a greater body weight gain (BWG) and lower feed conversion ratio (FCR) than those fed a normal nutrition (NN) diet (<i>p</i> < 0.05). Besides, lysolecithin increased BWG significantly (<i>p</i> < 0.05). The birds fed a diet with LPL revealed increasing fat digestibility compared to birds fed the basal diet (<i>p</i> < 0.05). LPL significantly increased the ileal digestibility of amino acids, including Ile, Thr, Phe, His, Arg, Tyr, Glu, Pro, Gly, Ala (<i>p</i> < 0.05). No interaction was found between LPL and nutrition level in BWG, FCR and nutrient digestibility. In HN diet, the genes expression of myogenic differentiation 1 (MYOD1), myogenin (MYOG), cluster of differentiation 36 (CD36), fatty acid-binding protein (FABP1), cationic amino acid transporter 1 (CAT1) and Y + L amino acid transporter 1 (y+, LAT1) were significantly elevated via LPL supplementation (<i>p</i> < 0.05). In NN diet, LPL significantly increased the genes expression of growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), MYOD1 and y+, LAT1 (<i>p</i> < 0.05). In conclusion, upregulating the nutrients transporter gene and growth-related gene expression of the host, independent of nutrition level changes, may be the action mechanism of lysolecithin on growth promotion in animals.