Report relative to shellfish industry in New York Harbor. Report of Official Project no. 465-97-3-131.

Cover title: Sewage pollution effect on the shellfish and fishing industries.

Canned fish and shellfish preferences of household consumers, 1956 : results of a national survey conducted under contract to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Chiefly tables.

Proceedings - National Shellfish Sanitation Workshop

Mode of access: Internet.

Ultraviolet disinfection of activated sludge effluent discharging to shellfish waters /

Mode of access: Internet.

Water quality and molluscan shellfish : an overview of the problems and the nature of appropriate Federal laws.

Conducted in cooperation with, and under contract to, National Marine Fisheries Service.

Regulations for the sale of viruses, serums, toxins, and analogous products in the District of Columbia, etc., approved Feb. 21, 1903.

At head of title: Treasury Department, U. S. Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service.

Rules and regulations relating to viruses, serums, toxins and analogous products, and to certain organisms and vectors, effective March 1, 1949.

Mode of access: Internet.

An annotated bibliography of oysters, with pertinent material on mussels and other shellfish and an appendix on pollution

Mode of access: Internet.

The toxins and venoms, and their antibodies,

Mode of access: Internet.

Cellular toxins;

Mode of access: Internet.

Microbes & toxins /

Mode of access: Internet.

Dynamics of motor nerve terminal remodeling unveiled using SNARE-cleaving botulinum toxins: the extent and duration are dictated by the sites of SNAP-25 truncation

Nerve sprouts emerge from motor nerve terminals following blockade of exo-endocytosis for more than 3 days by botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT), and form functional synapses, albeit temporary. Upon restoration of synaptic activity to the parent terminal 7 and 90 days after exposure to BoNT/F or A respectively, a concomitant retraction of the outgrowths was observed. BoNT/E caused short-term neuroparalysis, and dramatically accelerated the recovery of BoNT/A-paralyzed muscle by further truncation of SNAP-25 and its replenishment with functional full-length SNARE. The removal of 9 C-terminal residues from SNAP-25 by BoNT/A leads to persistence of the inhibitory product due to the formation of a nonproductive SNARE complex(es) at release sites, whereas deletion of a further 17 amino acids permits replenishment and a speedy recovery. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.

Engineering stable peptide toxins by means of backbone cyclization: Stabilization of the alpha-conotoxin MII

Conotoxins (CTXs), with their exquisite specificity and potency, have recently created much excitement as drug leads. However, like most peptides, their beneficial activities may potentially be undermined by susceptibility to proteolysis in vivo. By cyclizing the alpha-CTX MII by using a range of linkers, we have engineered peptides that preserve their full activity but have greatly improved resistance to proteolytic degradation. The cyclic MII analogue containing a seven-residue linker joining the N and C termini was as active and selective as the native peptide for native and recombinant neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subtypes present in bovine chromaffin cells and expressed in Xerl oocytes, respectively. Furthermore, its resistance to proteolysis against a specific protease and in human plasma was significantly improved. More generally, to our knowledge, this report is the first on the cyclization of disulfide-rich toxins. Cyclization strategies represent an approach for stabilizing bioactive peptides while keeping their full potencies and should boost applications of peptide-based drugs in human medicine.

The fate of Lyngbya majuscula toxins in three potential consumers

Blooms of Lyngbya majuscula have been reported with increasing frequency and severity in the last decade in Moreton Bay, Australia. A number of grazers have been observed feeding upon this toxic cyanobacterium. Differences in sequestration of toxic compounds from L. majuscula were investigated in two anaspideans, Stylocheilus striatus, Bursatella leachii, and the cephalaspidean Diniatys dentifer. Species fed a monospecific diet of L. majuscula had different toxin distribution in their tissues and excretions. A high concentration of lyngbyatoxin-a was observed in the body of S. striatus (3.94 mg/kg(-1)) compared to bodily secretions (ink 0.12 mg/kg- 1; fecal matter 0.56 mg/kg(-1); eggs 0.05 mg/kg(-1)). In contrast, B. leachii secreted greater concentrations of lyngbyatoxin-a (ink 5.41 mg/kg(-1); fecal matter 6.71 mg/kg(-1)) than that stored in the body (2.24 mg/kg(-1)). The major internal repository of lyngbyatoxin-a and debromoaplysiatoxin was the digestive gland for both S. striatus (6.31 +/- 0.31 mg/kg(-1)) and B. leachii (156.39 +/- 46.92 mg/kg(-1)). D. dentifer showed high variability in the distribution of sequestered compounds. Lyngbyatoxin-a was detected in the digestive gland (3.56 +/- 3.56 mg/kg(-1)) but not in the head and foot, while debromoaplysiatoxin was detected in the head and foot (133.73 +/- 129.82 mg/kg(-1)) but not in the digestive gland. The concentrations of sequestered secondary metabolites in these animals did not correspond to the concentrations found in L. majuscula used as food for these experiments, suggesting it may have been from previous dietary exposure. Trophic transfer of debromoaplysiatoxin from L. majuscula into S. striatus is well established; however, a lack of knowledge exists for other grazers. The high levels of secondary metabolites observed in both the anaspidean and the cephalapsidean species suggest that these toxins may bioaccumulate through marine food chains.