Acute rejection is associated with antibodies to non-Gal antigens in baboons using Gal-knockout pig kidneys

We transplanted kidneys from alpha 1,3-galactosyltransferase knockout (GalT-KO) pigs into six baboons using two different immunosuppressive regimens, but most of the baboons died from severe acute humoral xenograft rejection. Circulating induced antibodies to non-Gal antigens were markedly elevated at rejection, which mediated strong complement-dependent cytotoxicity against GaIT-KO porcine target cells. These data suggest that antibodies to non-Gal antigens will present an additional barrier to transplantation of organs from GaIT-KO pigs to humans.

Dynamics of parasite population and its histopathological and histophysiological effects in the stomach of a freshwater fish

The caryophyllaeid cestode Lytocestoides fossilis infects the freshwater catfish Heteropneustes fossilis. The study was conducted for two consecutive years (2004-06) to record the bio-statistical data of the parasite. The incidence, intensity, density and index of infection of the parasite have been recorded. The infection was more during June to September, moderate during February to May and low during October to January. The parasite brought about severe histopathological changes in the stomach of infected fish. The changes observed in the stomach of fish included structural damage of the villi, inflammation, and fibrosis associated with hyperplasia and metaplasia. The hypertrophy of mucous layer led to vacuolation and necrosis. Histochemical changes were noticed with enhanced carbohydrate, protein and lipid contents. The enhanced substrate content in the infected organ might be due to the disfunctioning of the digestive tract, which results in the accumulation of various metabolites. Mucus secretion was triggered as a protective interaction against parasitic invasion. The parasitic infection affects the general metabolic state of the host and as the result, the fish becomes sluggish and moribund.

Health and disease status of Thai pangas, Pangasius hypophthalmus cultured in rural ponds of Mymensingh, Bangladesh

Thai pangas, Pangasius hypophthalmus is one of the important aquaculture species in Bangladesh. Over the last few years spectacular development has been taking place in Thai pangas farming in Mymensingh district. Due to availability of easy breeding and culture techniques as well as quick return, more and more people are converting their rice fields into pangas farms overnight. The present study was carried out to examine health and disease status of Thai pangas mainly through clinical, histopathological and bacteriological techniques. In addition, for collecting primary data on disease and health status of Thai pangas and the resultant socioeconomic impacts on rural households, questionnaire interview and participatory rural appraisal tools were used with selected farming households in three upazilas of Mymensingh district. The most prevalent diseases as reported by the farmers were red spot, followed by anal protrusion, tail and fin rot, pop eye, dropsy and gill rot. Other conditions like cotton wool type lesion, ulceration and white spot were reported but with lower incidence. Four isolates of Aeromonas hydrophila were recovered from kidney and lesion of diseased fish. Hemorrhage over the body especially near mouth and caudal region was noticed in the fishes associated with aeromonad infection. Internally, kidney, liver and spleen became swollen and enlarged. The isolates varied with their pathogenicity. All the four isolates were sensitive to Nitrofurantoin, Cotrimoxazole and Tetracycline but were resistant to Amoxycilline. An attempt was made to treat diseased fish with extracts from neem leaf, garlic and turmeric. Recovery of infection was monitored through mortality and histopathology. General histopathological changes of different organs were also studied. Extract from neem (Azadirachta indica) leaf gave better result. Telangiectasis, lamellar hypertrophy and hyperplasia hemorrhage, lamellar fusion, necrosis of lamellar epithelial cells, presence of parasites and their cysts were the major pathology of gills. Hemorrhagic lesion, pyknotic nuclei and melanomacrophage centers (MMC) were found in the liver of fish. Major pathologies in kidney of fish included presence of MMC, necrotic and ruptured kidney tubules, severe haemopoietic necrosis, and hemorrhage. The economic loss due to disease in Thai pangas farming was estimated from the difference between expected production and actual production. On an average, Thai pangas farmers of Mymensingh incur a loss of Tk. 23,104/ha/cycle due to fish disease (3.6% of expected total production). The loss, however, varied with location and size of farms, type of farmers and management practices. The study also highlighted fish health management related problems and recommended further work for the development of user-friendly farmer-oriented fish health management packages.

Distribution of vitamin B-12 in some fishes and marine invertebrates

Distribution of vitamin B-12 in the skeletal muscle of several marine and fresh water fish and marine invertebrates are reported. The vitamin B-12 content of white muscle of various fish ranges between 0.05 and 1.5 micrograms. The elasmobranch fish, such as sharks and rays, has a lower levels of vitamin B-12. The distribution of vitamin B-12 in the red muscle, heart, brain and liver of various fish is also shown. Content in red muscle varies between 3 and 22 micrograms, averaging 8 micrograms. The values show that the heart is a rich source of vitamin B-12. Internal organs are also rich in vitamin B

Distribution of 5'-nucleotidase activity in the tissues of a freshwater teleost, Ophicephalus striatus Bloch

Homogenates of tissues have been analysed for the presence of 5'-nucleotidase activity. Sexes are not treated individually since no significant differences were observed. All organs showed marked activity, the highest being in the cardiac tissues, then the kidney, spleen, brain, and low values in the liver and muscles. Comparison with data from other fish studied shows a marked difference between O. striatus and O. punctatus.

Distribution of heavy metals in the northern shrimp Pandalus borealis from the Oslofjord

Studies on the distribution of heavy metals like copper, cadmium, zinc, lead and mercury in deep sea prawns Pandalus borealis in the Oslofjord region showed that those collected from inner and middle fjord contained higher levels of heavy metals than those from the outer fjord. Their content in the edible portions, viz., tail muscle, was less compared to other organs. In terms of metal concentration copper and zinc are present in significant quantities in Pandalus borealis.

Digestion of selected foods by Yunnan snub-nosed monkey Rhinopithecus bieti (Colobinae)

Three digestion trials were conducted to quantify aspects of digestive physiology in the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey Rhinopithecus bieti, a foregut fermenter that feeds primarily on lichens. Mean retention time (MRT, the average time plastic markers spent in

The unusual adaptive expansion of pancreatic ribonuclease gene in carnivora

Pancreatic ribonuclease (RNASE1) is a digestive enzyme that has been recognized to be one of the most attractive model systems for molecular evolutionary studies. The contribution of RNASE1 gene duplication to the functional adaptation of digestive physio

A Profound Role for the Expansion of Trypsin-Like Serine Protease Family in the Evolution of Hematophagy in Mosquito

The trypsin-like serine protease (Tryp_SPc) family is ubiquitous in animals and plays diverse roles, especially in the digestive system, in different phyla. In the mosquito, some Tryp_SPc proteases make important contributions to the digestion of the bloo

Duplication and functional diversification of pancreatic ribonuclease (RNASE1) gene

Adaptation is one of the most fundamental issues in the studies of organismal evolution. Pancreatic ribonuclease is a very important digestive enzyme and secreted by the pancreas. Numerous studies have suggested that RNASE1 gene duplication is closely related to the functional adaptation of the digestive system in the intestinal fermentation herbivores. RNASE1 gene thus becomes one of the most important candidate genetic markers to study the molecular mechanism of adaptation of organisms to the feeding habit. Interestingly, RNASE1 gene duplication has also been found in some non-intestinal fermentation mammals, suggesting that RNASE1 gene may have produced novel tissue specificity or functions in these species. In this review, RNASE1 gene and its implications in adaptive evolution, especially in association with the feeding habit of organisms, are summarized.

Preliminary study on the internal genital organ of the giant tiger prawn, Penaeus monodon

This report gives information on the anatomy of the internal genital organs of male and female Penaeus monodon.

Deep RNA sequencing at single base-pair resolution reveals high complexity of the rice transcriptome

Understanding the dynamics of eukaryotic transcriptome is essential for studying the complexity of transcriptional regulation and its impact on phenotype. However, comprehensive studies of transcriptomes at single base resolution are rare, even for modern organisms, and lacking for rice. Here, we present the first transcriptome atlas for eight organs of cultivated rice. Using high-throughput paired-end RNA-seq, we unambiguously detected transcripts expressing at an extremely low level, as well as a substantial number of novel transcripts, exons, and untranslated regions. An analysis of alternative splicing in the rice transcriptome revealed that alternative cis-splicing occurred in similar to 33% of all rice genes. This is far more than previously reported. In addition, we also identified 234 putative chimeric transcripts that seem to be produced by trans-splicing, indicating that transcript fusion events are more common than expected. In-depth analysis revealed a multitude of fusion transcripts that might be by-products of alternative splicing. Validation and chimeric transcript structural analysis provided evidence that some of these transcripts are likely to be functional in the cell. Taken together, our data provide extensive evidence that transcriptional regulation in rice is vastly more complex than previously believed.

Effect of alum on the histological changes of silver barb (Barbodes gonionotus)

Studies were conducted to know the effects of alum on the histological changes of silver barb (Barbodes gonionotus) fry in the aquarium. The use of up to 0.5 g/L of alum for 120 hours as means of treatment of fish diseases is safe. At this level, no abnormal behavior and pathological alteration were observed in the organs of experimental fish. As the doses increased to 1.25 g/L and above (1.5 g/L), experimental fishes exhibited abnormal movement and with marked histopathological changes in the various organs. A dose of above 0.5 g/L should be strictly prohibited.

Comparative effect of Pediococcus acidilactici and Lactococcus lactis on growth performance, survival and enzyme activity of western white leg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)

This study was done in Shahid Kiani Marine Aquaculture Development Center, Choebde, Abadan in order to evaluate the effects of Pediiococcus acidilactici, Lactococcus lactis and vitamin C on growth performance, survival, enzymatic activities and immune responses of L. vannamei during three months. Treatments were included control group, Pediiococcus and Lactococcus treatments which fed with diet containing 1×10P9P cfu gP_1P bacteria and vitamin C. At the end of the experiment, the growth factors, immune parameters, digestive enzymes, intestinal, histology of intestine, carcasses and microbial flora (bacterial total count and lactic acid count) were evaluated. The results indicated that administration of lactobacillus had significant effects on the growth factors as the highest weight, increase specific growth rate, relative growth rate, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency in the shrimps received pediococcus and then Lactococcus (P<0.05). The best immune function was also observed in the shrimps fed by probiotics, so that proteins and hemoglobin̛ hemolymph, phenoloxidase activity and challenged with V. parahaemolyticus showed a statistical difference comparing to the control group and the group received vitamin C (P<0.05). Some digestive enzymes, in pediococcus treatment showed a significant increase when compared to other treatments (P<0.05). Significant changes in bacterial intestinal flora were observed in probiotic groups compared with control and vitamin C groups (P < 0.05). Histological results showed the positive effects of probiotics in the gut (P < 0.05). While these supplements cannot caused to significant impacts on the shrimp carcass composition (P ˃ 0.05). As a result pediococcus group had the best performance among treatments.

Study of density, distribution and yield on benthic fauna and brown trout (Salmo trutta fario) feeding in Laar reservoirs

Lar lake, with the international UTM specification of 39S 579680 3976567 & 39S 589930 3976184 is Situated in Lar national Park with an aerial distance of 55 Km of Tehran along Haraz road. The present research is carried out as part of a comprehensives Plan for assessment of bioresearches of Lar lake & the rivers flowing into it. This research includes examination of there benthic Samplings performed in Lar lake and each of the related rivers including Delichaee, Ab-e-sefid , Alarm & Lar (Kamardasht).Tubifex and Chironomus genus were found to have the highest frequencies of occurrence in the lake with %77.117 & %21.823 respectively followed by Chironomidae and Simulidae from the Diptera order which accounted for %72.328 and %13.812 occurrences in four rivers examined in the Study. The benthic biomass at various examined Sites and the average wet weight of the benthic biomass in station No one in the lake Was 17.397g and the figure for the examined site in Alarm was 20.242 g which were the highest level among Other examination stations the index for the abundance of species in Alarm river was greater than the rest of the examined rivers with 12.57. A sum of 354 Pieces of brown trouts was caught in the course of sampling which were closely investigated in terms of their digestive tract Content. It was identified that Daphniidae and Chironomus constituted the bulk of eaten items from the lake with %17.985 and %63.973 respectively. Meanwhile, Chironomidae and Simuladae were the most frequently eanten benthos by the fish with %81.47 and %7.93 respectively.The index for the relative length of gut was recorded at 0.49± 0.08 which is well indicative of the carnivorous diet of the fish.The index for the feeding intensity amounted to 138  83 showing that the one year old fish were of more feeding intensity.The coefficient of condition (K) was estimated at 1.02  0.142 for all the caught fish. The average wet weight of the benthos was 10.348 g per square meter which if extended to 700ha surface area of the lake, the total macrobenthic production in the lake would amount to 72730Kg of wet weight or 6510 Kg of dry weight. Since the Secondary Production of macrobenthos have always been double that of their biomass, it is reasonable to assume that the Secondary Production of macrobenthos amount to 145640 Kg by their wet weight and Since the energy transfer in the food chain of the lake from benthos to fish is 10 percent, the fish production Capacity Coming from benthic resources of the lake (Lar) would be 14.5 MT, half of which (7000-8000MT) could annually be harvested. Further more, the actual fish Production Capacity might exceed the projected level Since Daphnia, Rotifers and Ostracoda which belong to Zooplanktons, play a part in the natural diet of trout. Meanwhile, rivers Play a major role in fish nutrition and the annual fish production in Delichaee river is about 4481.8Kg while the figures for Ab-e-sefid, Alerm and Lar rivers are 2370.7 4848.7 and 2586.2 Kg respectively, that further increase fish Production in the area and every year half of these resources can be exploitable from the river & the lake.Nevertheless, due to ecological & biological importance of rivers and the probability of environmental Pollution, devastation of natural fish habitats & their nursery grounds, Sport fishing is not recommended at all.