Evolutionary Conservation of Dazl Genomic Organization and its Continuous and Dynamic Distribution Throughout Germline Development in Gynogenetic Gibel Carp

To investigate germline development and germ cell specification, we identified a Dazl homolog (CagDazl) from gynogenetic gibel carp (Carassius auratus gibelio). Its cDNA sequence and BAC clone sequence analyses revealed the genomic organization conservation and conserved synteny of the Dazl family members and their neighborhood genes among vertebrates, especially in fish. Moreover, a polyclonal antibody specific to CagDazl was produced and used to examine its expression and distribution throughout germline development at protein level. Firstly, ovary-specific expression pattern of CagDazl was confirmed in adult tissues by RT-PCR and Western blot. In addition, in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence localization demonstrated its specific expression in germ cells, and both its transcript and protein were localized to germ plasm. Then, co-localization of CagDazl and mitochondrial cloud was found, confirming that CagDazl transcript and its protein are germ plasm component and move via METRO pathway during oogenesis. Furthermore, the CagDazl is abundant and continuous throughout germline development and germ cell specification including primordial germ cell (PGC) formation, oogonium differentiation, oocyte development, and embryogenesis, and the dynamic distribution occurs at different development stages. The data suggest that maternal CagDazl might play an important role in gibel carp PGC formation. Therefore, CagDazl is a useful and specific marker for tracing germ plasm and germ cell development in the gynogenetic gibel carp. In addition, in comparison with previous studies in sexual reproduction species, the continuous and dynamic distribution of CagDazl protein in the germ plasm throughout the life cycle seems to have significant implication in sex evolution of vertebrates. J. Exp. Zool. (Mol. Deu. Euol.) 312B:855-871, 2009. (C) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Differential screening and characterization analysis of the egg envelope glycoprotein ZP3 cDNAs between gynogenetic and gonochoristic crucian carp

Gynogenetic silver crucian carp, Carassius auratus gibelio, is an intriguing model. system. In the present work, a systemic study has been initiated by introducing suppression subtractive hybridization technique into this model system to identify the differentially expressed genes in oocytes between gynogenetic silver crucian carp and its closely related gonochoristic color crucian carp. Five differential cDNA fragments were identified from the preliminary screening, and two of them are ZP3 homologues. Moreover, the full length ZP3 cDNAs were cloned from their oocyte cDNA libraries. The length of ZP3 cDNAs were 1378 bp for gyno-carp and 1367 bp for gono-carp, and they can be translated into proteins with 435 amino acids. Obvious differences are not only in the composition of amino acids, but also in the number of potential O-linked oligosaccharide sites. In addition, gyno-carp ZP3 amino acid sequence has an unexpected higher identity value with common carp (83.5%) than that with the closely related gono-carp (74.7%). The unique homology may be originated from the ancient hybridization. Northern blot analysis confirmed that expression of the ZP3 gene occurred exclusively in the oocytes. Because O-linked oligosaccharides on ZP3 have been demonstrated to play very important roles in fertilization, it is suggested that the extra O-linked glycosylation sites may be related to the unique sperm-egg recognition mechanism in gynogenesis.

Comparative investigation on spindle behavior and MPF activity changes during oocyte maturation between gynogenetic and amphimictic crucian carp

The spindle behavior and MPF activity changes in the progression of oocyte maturation were investigated and compared with cytological observation and kinase assay between gynogenetic silver crucian carp and amphimictic colored crucian carp. MPF activity was measured by using histone I-Il as phosphorylation substrate. There were two similar oscillatory MPF kinase activity changes during oocyte maturation in two kinds of fishes with different reproductive modes, but there existed some subtle difference between them. The subtle difference was that the first peak of MPF kinase activity was kept to a longer-lasting time in the gynogenetic silver crucian carp than in the amphimictic colored crucian carp. It was suggested that the difference may be related to the spindle behavior changes, such as tripolar spindle formation and spindle rearrangement in the gynogenetic crucian carp.

A numerical investigation on the flow physics of koi carp (Cyprinus carpio koi) burst-and-coast swimming

Abstract—Burst-and-coast is the most common locomotion type in freely routine swimming of koi carps (Cyprinus carpio koi), which consists of a burst phase and a coast phase in each cycle and mostly leads to a straight-line trajectory. Combining with the tracking experiment, the flow physics of koi carp’s burst-andcoast swimming is investigated using a novel integrated CFD method solving the body-fluid interaction problem. The dynamical equations of a deforming body are formulated. Following that, the loose-coupled equations of the body dynamics and the fluid dynamics are numerically solved with the integrated method. The two burst modes, MT (Multiple Tail-beat) and HT (Half Tail-beat), which have been reported by the experiments, are investigated by numerical simulations in this paper. The body kinematics is predicted and the flow physics is visualized, which are in good agreement with the corresponding experiments. Furthermore, the optimization on the energy cost and several critical control mechanisms in burst-and-coast swimming of koi carps are explored, by varying the parameters in its selfpropelled swimming. In this paper, energetics is measured by the two mechanical quantities, total output power CP and Froude efficiency Fr. Results and discussion show that from the standpoint of mechanical energy, burst-and-coast swimming does not actually save energy comparing with steady swimming at the same average speed, in that frequently changing of speed leads to decrease of efficiency.

Effect of cerium oxide on the precipitation of silver nanoparticles in femtosecond laser irradiated silicate glass

We investigated the effect of cerium oxide on the precipitation of Ag nanoparticles in silicate glass via a femtosecond laser irradiation and successive annealing. Absorption spectra show that Ce3+ ions may absorb part of the laser energy via multiphoton absorption and release free electrons, resulting in an increase of the concentration of Ag atoms and a decrease of the concentration of hole-trapped color centers, which influence precipitation of the Ag nanoparticles. In addition, we found that the formed Ag-0 may reduce Ce4+ ions to Ce3+ ions during the annealing process, which inhibits the growth of the Ag nanoparticles.

Femtosecond filamentation and supercontinuum generation in silver-nanoparticle-doped water

The authors report the investigation of filament and supercontinuum generation by focusing a femtosecond laser beam into water doped with silver nanoparticles. The silver nanoparticles enhance the nonlinear optical response of water, leading to broadening of supercontinuum spectra in self-focused femtosecond filaments. During the propagation of the supercontinuum light in the filament, the silver nanoparticles preferentially scatter the short-wavelength light near the plasmon resonant wavelength peak, followed by the scattering of the long-wavelength light. Thus, a side view of the filament shows a full-color spectrum in the visible range, which is herein called "rainbow filament." (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Synthesis and formation mechanism of silver nanowires by a templateless and seedless method

Silver nanowires in large quantities can be obtained through a simple method in the absence of a surfactant or polymer and without addition of external seeding nanocrystallites. A plausible mechanism was proposed to elucidate the formation mechanism of silver nanowires based on TEM studies.

Dynamic readout of subdiffraction-limited pit arrays with a silver superlens

Recent theoretical and experimental results suggested that the silver superlens could be constructed through controlling silver thin film thickness and preparation conditions, and applied in subdiffraction-limited optical imaging and optical lithography. In this work, we report another significant application of silver superlens-ultrahigh density optical data storage. With the silver superlens the subdiffraction-limited pit arrays on an optical disk are dynamically read out and the carrier-to-noise ratio can reach 25 dB for the thin film thickness of 46 nm. The readout laser power and readout velocity have little effect on the carrier-to-noise ratio. Additionally, in our experiment the silver thin film thickness needs to be controlled in the range from 20 to 80 nm.

On the dynamic readout of sub-diffraction-limit pit arrays with a silver thin film

Fast moving arrays of periodic sub-diffraction-limit pits were dynamically read out via a silver thin film. The mechanism of the dynamic readout is analysed and discussed in detail, both experimentally and theoretically. The analysis and experiment show that, in the course of readout, surface plasmons can be excited at the silver/air interface by the focused laser beam and amplified by the silver thin film. The surface plasmons are transmitted into the substrate/silver interface with a large enhancement. The surface waves at the substrate/silver interface are scattered by the sinusoidal pits of sub-diffraction-limit size. The scattered waves are collected by a converging lens and guided into the detector for the readout.

Space-selective co-precipitation of silver and gold nanoparticles in femtosecond laser pulses irradiated Ag+, Au3+ co-doped silicate glass

We report on space-selective co-precipitation of silver and gold nanoparticles in Ag+, Au3+ co-doped silicate glasses by irradiation of femtosecond laser pulses and subsequent annealing at high temperatures. The color of the irradiated area in the glass sample changed from yellow to red with the increase of the annealing temperature. The effects of average laser power and annealing temperature on precipitation of the nanoparticles were investigated. A reasonable mechanism was proposed to explain the observed phenomena. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of chromium intermediate layer on properties of silver coatings

Coatings with layer structures of Ag/glass, Ag/Cr/glass, and Ag/Cr-Ag/Cr/glass deposited with magnetron sputtering are investigated. The results indicate that the performance for reflectance, hardness, adherence, and humidity durability of the silver coatings with Ag/Cr/glass and Ag/Cr-Ag/Cr/glass structures are better than pure silver film. In addition, the silver coatings with an Ag/Cr-Ag/glass structure present more advantages than that of the Ag/Cr/glass. Reasons are analyzed accordingly. (C) 2004 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.