Patterns of autotomy and regeneration in Hemigrapsus nudus

Leg autotomy and regeneration can have severe impacts on survival and reproduction, and these impacts may be even more pronounced in animals with multifarious legs, such as decapods. Thus, determining the patterns and frequency of autotomy and regeneration could reveal the effects of these processes on the individual and population level. We investigated whether some legs are lost more often than others and if all legs are equally likely to be regenerated. We sampled nearly 500 purple shore crabs (Hemigrapsus nudus) and showed that (1) most animals are found with at least one injured leg, (2) the patterns of autotomy differ between males and females, and (3) successful claw regeneration is unlikely in both males and females. Future work with H. nudus and other grapsid crabs will elucidate how patterns seen here relate to other developmental and ecological factors.     

中间球海胆、光棘球海胆及杂交F1代(中间球海胆♀×光棘球海胆♂)群体遗传多样性AFLP分析

应用AFLP技术对中间球海胆、光棘球海胆及杂交F1代(中间球海胆♀×光棘球海胆♂)群体的遗传多样性进行了分析。结果表明, 4对引物共扩增得到272个位点, 其中269个多态位点, 总的多态位点比例为98.89%。3个群体的香农多样性指数分别为: 0.2331 ± 0.1273、0.2005 ± 0.1385和0.2625 ± 0.1067。群体内遗传相似度分别为: 0.6876 ± 0.0523、0.6501 ± 0.0548和0.6552 ± 0.0553。分子方差分析(AMOVA)结果表明, 变异来源有25.39%来自群体间, 有74.61%来自群体内, 群体内的遗传多样性比较丰富。尽管杂交海胆在表型上可以明显分成两种类型, 但是通过AFLP统计的遗传距离进行的个体聚类却随机聚在一起, 不能分成两个群体。     

裸体方格星虫染色体组型分析

将裸体方格星虫(Sipunculus nudus)置于0.04%秋水仙素溶液中暂养12h,取其体腔液,用盐度6.50‰过滤海水低渗45min,1500r/min离心8min,卡诺氏液固定1h,热滴片,5% Giemsa染色,显微观察、摄影,根据Levan等的分类标准进行染色体组型分析.结果表明,裸体方格星虫的染色体基数为x=17,2n=2x=34,染色体组型为2n=2x=26m 8sm,NF=68.除第2、3、4、8对染色体为亚中部着丝粒染色体(sm)外,其余均为中部着丝粒染色体(m).臂比值变化范围是1.211～2.617.未发现性染色体和随体.     

四种常见蟹类对光棘球海胆的捕食策略

光棘球海胆(Mesocentrotus nudus)是维持海藻生态系统稳定的关键种,同时也是北方重要的经济海胆类.目前对黄渤海地区光棘球海胆的种群生态学研究还不足,对影响其种群数量动态的因素尚不明确.为探明光棘球海胆的捕食者种类及其捕食策略,选择平背蜞(Gaetice depressus)、肉球近方蟹(Hemigrap...     

Modelling the genetics and demography of step cline formation: gastropod populations preyed on by experimentally introduced crabs

Whether a prey population goes extinct or adapts in response to an invading predator may depend on the number of contiguous populations that experience increased predation. We created invaded snail populations by building shelters for predatory shore crabs on a rocky intertidal bench. The crabs preyed selectively on thin-shelled snails tethered next to the shelters but did not prey on those more than 2 m away. This caused strong directional selection for increased shell thickness in populations close to the shelters but did not change selection in those farther away. The field experiment was used to parameterize a new individual-based quantitative genetic model that included demography. In the model a detectable step cline in shell thickness evolved rapidly even though the region of increased predation was shorter than Slatkin's characteristic length. The cline's step size in the model was similar to that measured in the field 10 years after the experiment began.     

中间球海胆、光棘球海胆及杂交F1代（中间球海胆♀×光棘球海胆♂）群体遗传多样性AFLP分析

应用AFLP技术对中间球海胆、光棘球海胆及杂交F1代（中间球海胆♀×光棘球海胆♂）群体的遗传多样性进行了分析。结果表明,4对引物共扩增得到272个位点,其中269个多态位点,总的多态位点比例为98.89%。3个群体的香农多样性指数分别为：0.2331±0.1273、0.2005±0.1385和0.2625±0.1067。群体内遗传相似度分别为：0.6876±0.0523、0.6501±0.0548和0.6552±0.0553。分子方差分析（AMOVA）结果表明,变异来源有25.39%来自群体间,有74.61%来自群体内,群体内的遗传多样性比较丰富。尽管杂交海胆在表型上可以明显分成两种类型,但是通过AFLP统计的遗传距离进行的个体聚类却随机聚在一起,不能分成两个群体。     

流速对光棘球海胆行为和生长的影响

海胆在海藻床生态系统结构和功能调控中发挥重要作用。深入理解流速对海胆摄食和生长的影响具有重要的生态学研究价值。研究了长时间(49 d)不同流速(2 cm/s, 10 cm/s和20 cm/s)对光棘球海胆幼胆(Mesocentrotus nudus,壳径：约20 mm)摄食行为、摄食量和生长的影响，以评估不同流速下，海胆摄食行为和生长的差异。实验结果表明，流速对光棘球海胆的存活无显著影响，但显著影响其生长。2 cm/s下海胆的壳径和体重显著大于10和20 cm/s。在实验开始后的第2周和第3周，2 cm/s下海胆的体重和壳径已显著高于20 cm/s。流速显著影响光棘球海胆的摄食量(P<0.001)和觅食行为(20 cm/s,P=0.004),但口器咬合行为未受显著影响(P=0.113)。管足附着时间在流速为10 cm/s和20 cm/s下显著长于其在2 cm/s。同样的，相较于2 cm/s(P=0.02)和10 cm/s(P=0.03),20 cm/s的流速可显著削弱光棘球海胆的翻正行为。综上，高流速(20 cm/s)通过影响海胆管足活动削弱其觅食行为(而非摄食行为),进而降低其...     

Cd2+急性胁迫下方格星虫体腔液消化酶活力和游离氨基酸的变化

为了解Cd2+急性胁迫下方格星虫体腔液消化酶活力和游离氨基酸的变化规律, 采用毒理学试验方法, 在确定Cd2+对方格星虫毒性强度的基础上, 选取48h最低致死浓度为试验浓度, 研究该浓度Cd2+胁迫下方格星虫体腔液消化酶活力和游离氨基酸的动态变化。结果表明: 方格星虫死亡率随着Cd2+浓度的升高而增加,Cd2+对方格星虫的24h和48h的LC50分别为37.80和22.68 mg/L。在48h最小致死浓度下, Cd2+对方格星虫体腔液蛋白酶和淀粉酶活力在试验周期内均表现为抑制, 且淀粉酶活力受到的抑制作用较强; Cd2+胁迫前期脂肪酶活力显著升高(P0.05), 24h后又显著降低(P0.05), 48h时仅为初始水平的40%, 说明低浓度Cd2+对脂肪酶活力有诱导作用, 高浓度Cd2+则产生抑制。方格星虫体腔液游离氨基酸的组成和含量在Cd2+胁迫48h内均有显著变化(P0.05)。各游离氨基酸含量及氨基酸总量在24h前均无显著变化(P0.05), 24h后先上升后下降(P0.05),36h的游离氨基酸总量达到初始水平的2倍以上, 为145.50 mg/100 mL, 大部分游离氨基酸组成百分比也在24h前较稳定, 24h后呈现峰值变化。总之, Cd2+急性胁迫对方格星虫体腔液消化酶活力和游离氨基酸均有显著影响(P0.05), 且消化酶活力与游离氨基酸含量和组成的变化与胁迫时间有关。     

Anti-hypoxia activity of a polysaccharide extracted from the Sipunculus nudus L

A water-soluble polysaccharide, named as SNP, was extracted and fractioned from the body wall of Sipunculus nudus L. by DEAE-Sepharose anion exchange and Sepharose CL-6B column chromatography. The evaluation for anti-hypoxia activity demonstrated that SNP had significant anti-hypoxic activity on normobarie hypoxia, chemical intoxicant hypoxia and acute cerebral ischemia hypoxia models in mice. SNP also enhanced the number of red blood cell count (RBC) and the concentration of hemoglobin (HGB). The structural characteristics of SNP investigated by high performance size exclusion chromatography, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry indicated that SNP was a homogeneous polysaccharide with a molecular mass of 350 kD and was composed of rhamnose (28%), fucose (16%) and galactose (56%). The results suggested that SNP could be explored as a novel potential anti-hypoxia agent.     

Claw morphology, prey size selection and foraging efficiency in generalist and specialist shell-breaking crabs

Claw morphology, and claw-closing forces of four species of intertidal crabs from San Juan Island, Washington were compared and related these findings were related to prey size selection, shell breaking times and total handling times on their snail prey, Littorina sitkana Philippi. Two functional groups of crabs emerged: generalists and specialists on hard-shelled prey. The generalist, Hemigrapsus nudus (Dana), has an omnivorous diet and possesses weak claws with small, fine denticles and mechanical advantage (MA) of the claw's lever system <0.3, while the specialists, Lophopanopeus bellus (Stimpson), Cancer oregonensis (Dana) and C. productus (Randall), consume hard-shelled prey and possess large, powerful claws with broad, blunt molars and MA>0.3. The claws of the generalist, H. nudus, exhibited weaker claw closing forces (5 N) than those of similar sized specialists (>12 N). When crabs of similar weight were offered four size categories of Littorina sitkana, the generalist, Hemigrapsus nudus, exhibited a consistent preference for the smallest size categories, while the three specialists attacked all size classes offered. Hemigrapsus nudus took significantly longer (134 s) than the specialists (30–52 s) to break open a 4 mm L. sitkana. This difference in shell-breaking time between the generalist and the specialists increased with increasing prey size. The rate of successful attacks on increasingly larger L. sitkana decreased with prey size in the generalist (70% on 4 mm, 37% on 6 mm, and 0% on 8 mm snails), but remained high in the specialists (70–100%). Strength limitation of the claws is the best hypothesis to explain the avoidance of large snails by the generalist, H. nudus.