Is there sperm storage in the clam shrimp Eulimnadia texana?

Abstract. Androdioecy is a rare form of mating system in which species comprise males and hermaphrodites. One recently described case of androdioecy is the freshwater crustacean Eulimnadia texana. A mathematical model of the mating system of this shrimp suggests that males and hermaphrodites should only coexist under limited circumstances. One possible factor not considered in this model would extend the conditions for coexistence: the possibility of sperm storage in the hermaphrodites. Here we use genetically marked matings between males and hermaphrodites to determine if hermaphrodites can store male sperms. Eggs were collected from hermaphrodites both in the presence of a male and after the male was removed. A total of 30 of these matings had successful hatches, but only 14 of these 30 could be used to test for sperm storage. In these 14 cases, an average of 35% of the eggs were outcrossed when males were present, but only 0.4% were outcrossed after males were removed. Thus, sperm storage by hermaphrodites was an insignificant factor in the production of offspring. These data suggest that sperm storage cannot help explain the coexistence of males and hermaphrodites in natural populations of this crustacean.     

Culturing the fairy shrimp Streptocephalus dichotomus Baird using livestock waste – a reclamation study

The present study describes a defined culturetechnique for the fairy shrimp, Streptocephalusdichotomus. It emphasizes reclamation of low-cost organiclive-stock waste(cow-dung), lime powder, and urea. These compounds wereused to enrich algal and diatom populations in themedium. These algae and diatoms were fed to filter feedingfairy shrimps to yield anostracanbiomass. A production of 262 ± 6 animals l^–1was obtained in an experimental tank compared to 36 ± 4animals l^–1 in the controls. Interestingly,the total number of clutches in experimentalfemales (12 ± 2), relative to the control (7 ± 1),increased too.     

Mate recognition and pairing in the big‐clawed snapping shrimp,Alpheus heterochelis

Most studied snapping shrimp are found in male‐female pairs, cohabiting a common shelter. Studying Alpheus heterochelis in the laboratory, we determined that both sexes discriminate a former mate, from which they have been separated for 24 h, from a stranger. Strangers are more aggressive towards each other and show significantly lower frequencies of non‐agonistic (stroking and touching) behaviours than do former mates. We also established that the probability of re‐pairing between former mates and the pairing latency are strongly dependent on which sex remained in the home tank. If the female remains resident, she is equally likely to pair with a stranger and with her former mate (when tested separately), and there is no difference in pairing latency. If the male remains resident, the frequency of pairing between former mates is significantly higher than between strangers, and the pairing latency is significantly shorter. From these differences, we infer that the social bond may be adapted to absence from the shelter by the female, but not by the male.     

Bycatch quotas in the Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl fishery: can they work?

Bycatch of unwanted, prohibited, or protected species is a problem in most commercial fisheries. Trawl fisheries are particularly prone to bycatch problems because trawls are not species-selective. In this paper, I review the history of finfish bycatch research in the Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl fishery and explore the use of quotas to reduce finfish bycatch by examining four fisheries that currently use bycatch quotas: (1) the arrow squid trawl fishery of New Zealand, which uses fleet bycatch quotas for sea lion bycatch, (2) the Alaskan groundfish trawl fisheries, which use fleet quotas under a vessel incentive program for prohibited species, (3) the groundfish trawl fishery of British Columbia, Canada which uses individual vessel bycatch quotas for prohibited species, and (4) the multi-species trawl fisheries of New Zealand, which use catch balancing, or individual transferable quotas, for most commercially landed species. Based on the bycatch quota experiences in these fisheries, elements of successful bycatch quota programs include: (1) individual accountability, in the form of individual or cooperative bycatch quotas, rather than fleet quotas, (2) 100% observer coverage, (3) relatively small, manageable fleets, (4) limited landing ports that can be easily monitored, particularly if observer coverage is incomplete, (5) reliable enforcement, (6) penalties that are true disincentives, and (7) some flexibility in the system for fishermen to have alternatives to manage their bycatch. The Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl fishery, with an estimated 20,000 licensed boats, is currently too large for individual bycatch quotas to be practical, although individual or cooperative bycatch quotas would be excellent strategies for reducing the bycatch of a smaller fleet. Mobile closed areas might be beneficial for reducing the bycatch of particular species, but these short-term closures would require real-time monitoring of bycatch rates and vessel monitoring systems on all vessels. However, under any management regime, incentives and/or rigorously enforced disincentives are the key to successful bycatch reduction.     

Potential functions of LEA proteins from the brine shrimp Artemia franciscana – anhydrobiosis meets bioinformatics

Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins are a large group of anhydrobiosis-associated intrinsically disordered proteins, which are commonly found in plants and some animals. The brine shrimp Artemia franciscana is the only known animal that expresses LEA proteins from three, and not only one, different groups in its anhydrobiotic life stage. The reason for the higher complexity in the A. franciscana LEA proteome (LEAome), compared with other anhydrobiotic animals, remains mostly unknown. To address this issue, we have employed a suite of bioinformatics tools to evaluate the disorder status of the Artemia LEAome and to analyze the roles of intrinsic disorder in functioning of brine shrimp LEA proteins. We show here that A. franciscana LEA proteins from different groups are more similar to each other than one originally expected, while functional differences among members of group three are possibly larger than commonly anticipated. Our data show that although these proteins are characterized by a large variety of forms and possible functions, as a general strategy, A. franciscana utilizes glassy matrix forming LEAs concurrently with proteins that more readily interact with binding partners. It is likely that the function(s) of both types, the matrix-forming and partner-binding LEA proteins, are regulated by changing water availability during desiccation.     

Fishers’ ecological knowledge on the reproduction of fish and shrimp in a subtropical coastal ecosystem

Hydrobiologia - Fishers’ ecological knowledge (FEK) has contributed to a better understanding about the reproduction of fishery resources, especially where biological data are scarce or...     

Ecophysiological responses to temperature of the "killer shrimp" Dikerogammarus villosus: is the invader really stronger than the native Gammarus pulex?

With global climate changes, biological invasions are considered to be one of the main causes of the decline of freshwater biodiversity. In this context, predicted increases in global temperature may alter the geographical distributions of native and invasive species. The purpose of our study was to examine the metabolic, behavioral and physiological responses to short-term temperature acclimation of two widely distributed species (the most successful European invader, Dikerogammarus villosus, and its main victim, Gammarus pulex), in order to estimate the potential effect of global warming on its invasion of freshwater ecosystems. Our results show that D. villosus is more vulnerable to high temperatures than G. pulex. The native species seems to be best adapted to intermediate temperatures (10-20°C) with a possibility of adjustment to "extreme" temperatures (5-27°C), whereas the "killer shrimp" D. villosus seems best adapted to lower temperatures (5-10°C) with a limited possibility of adjustment above 20°C. In the light of our results, global warming is likely to be less favorable to the invasive species. However, D. villosus showed reduced metabolic and activity rates, associated with higher glycogen content. This adaptive strategy was interpreted as having functional advantages, allowing D. villosus to successfully invade harsh and/or unpredictable biotopes. In addition, our results show that glycogen stores may be used as a powerful indicator of the optimal thermal window for aquatic ectotherms.     

On the population dynamics and ecology of the shrimp species (Crustacea,Decapoda, Natantia) in the Central Amazonian river Tarumã-Mirim

Summary Collections over four years in the habitat of submerged litter show that shrimps are abundant the year round. Mean densities vary from 5–45 animals/m² of litter habitat. Finegrained density distribution within litter sites is highly clumped, but coarse-grained distribution in any given month between litter sites along the river is grosso-modo random.Density and species distribution are a function of the annual cycles of inundations. Of the five species (of a total of seven in the area) that were found to be breeding in the litter habitat it could be established that reproduction is restricted to the period of rising and highest water levels. Reproduction is low in all species, namely below 20 eggs per egg batch with essentially a single generation per year.Breeding ecology in relation to the litter habitat is briefly discussed.This project was supported jointly by the CNPq (Brasilian Research Council), by the OAS (Organization of the American States) and by the SUFRAMA (Financing body of local government)     

The digestive enzymes of the pacific brown shrimp Penaeus californiensis.: I—Properties of amylase activity in the digestive tract

• 1.1. Crude extract of the whole digestive tract from the brown shrimp (P. californiensis) was investigated for digestive amylase activity.
• 2.2. Considerable amylase activity was found at pH 6.5–8.0, with optimum pH at around 7.5.
• 3.3. Optimum temperature was found between 30–40°C, similar to amylases from other crustaceans.
• 4.4. Amylase activity was highly halotolerant, having 50% maximum activity at 3 M NaCl.
• 5.5. Maximum amylase activity was found at 0.01 M NaCl.
• 6.6. Amylase activity was partially inhibited by the divalent ions Hg²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cu²⁺ and Cr²⁺.
• 7.7. Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ ions seemed to enhance amylase activity.

     

Crustacean resources are vulnerable to serial depletion – the multifaceted decline of crab and shrimp fisheries in the Greater Gulf of Alaska

The seas around Alaska support (or have supported) some of the most commercially significant crustacean stocks in the world, spread over an overwhelming array of extensive and diverse coastal and open shelf areas. Major resources include three species of king crab (Paralithodes spp. and Lithodes aequispina), Tanner and snow crab (Chionoecetes spp.), Dungeness crab (Cancer magister), and five species of pandalid shrimp (Pandalus spp. and Pandalopsis dispar). Excluding the Bering Sea, the resources from the Greater Gulf of Alaska (ranging from the Aleutian Chain to the state's south-eastern panhandle contiguous with British Columbia) supported rapid expansion of several crab and shrimp fisheries during the 20 year period 1960–1980. Since then, most of those fisheries have collapsed. While some of the stock declines have been well documented and discussed (most prominently the dethroning of red king crab on the shelf around Kodiak Island), it has been less apparent that the demise of Alaskan crustace an stocks is a process on a much larger scale, and is still unfolding. Here we examine trends in catch, recruitment and abundance (when possible) and discuss existing evidence of overfishing and management options. We emphasize the importance of recognizing the multi-scale spatial structure of crustacean stocks, and suggest the need to consider spatially explicit strategies, particularly the creation of reproductive refugia     

A butyrylcholinesterase in the early development of the brine shrimp (Artemia salina) larvae: a target for phthalate ester embryotoxicity?

The phthalate ester insensitive blue-green algae (Synechococcus lividus) were used as a food source to extend the survival of synchronously hatched brine shrimp (Artemia salina) larvae allowing measurement of a reduced toxic response to phthalate esters at late post-hatching stages of development. The maximum acute toxicity due to di-n-butyl phthalate (DNBP) correlated with the expression of a phthalate ester-hydrolyzing enzyme. The purified enzyme was identified as a butyrylcholinesterase due to its rapid inactivation by low concentrations (10(-7)M) of diisopropyl fluorophosphate and inhibition by physostigmine (IC(50)=6 x 10(-7)M) and tetraisopropylpyrophosphoramide (I-OMPA, IC(50)=x 10(-6)M) but not by BW284c5. Apparently competition of the phthalates with the endogenous substrates of the enzyme led to development-dependent toxicity.     

Does damming of the Colorado River affect the nursery area of blue shrimp Litopenaeus stylirostris (Decapoda: Penaeidae) in the Upper Gulf of California?

After damming the Colorado River the freshwater flow was reduced to 1% of its virgin flow to the Upper Gulf of California (UGC). The ecological effects need to be properly documented. The UGC is the nursery area for Litopenaeus stylirostris, the most profitable fishery in the zone. In order to know the relative abundance of L. stylirostris postlarval stage we conducted a sampled survey every 14 days in 1993, 1994 and 1997, plus an intensive sampling during a complete tide cycle in July 1995 and 1996. We did 10 min trawls each hour during the flood tide. Relative abundance of postlarvae was higher (p < 0.05) in those years when freshwater flow reached the UGC.     

Crystal structure of shrimp arginine kinase in binary complex with arginine—a molecular view of the phosphagen precursor binding to the enzyme

Arginine kinase (AK) is a key enzyme for energetic balance in invertebrates. Although AK is a well-studied system that provides fast energy to invertebrates using the phosphagen phospho-arginine, the structural details on the AK-arginine binary complex interaction remain unclear. Herein, we determined two crystal structures of the Pacific whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) arginine kinase, one in binary complex with arginine (LvAK-Arg) and a ternary transition state analog complex (TSAC). We found that the arginine guanidinium group makes ionic contacts with Glu225, Cys271 and a network of ordered water molecules. On the zwitterionic side of the amino acid, the backbone amide nitrogens of Gly64 and Val65 coordinate the arginine carboxylate. Glu314, one of proposed acid–base catalytic residues, did not interact with arginine in the binary complex. This residue is located in the flexible loop 310–320 that covers the active site and only stabilizes in the LvAK-TSAC. This is the first binary complex crystal structure of a guanidine kinase in complex with the guanidine substrate and could give insights into the nature of the early steps of phosphagen biosynthesis.     

Is polyploidy a persevering accident or an adaptive evolutionary pattern? The case of the brine shrimp Artemia

Asexual organisms are confronted with substantial drawbacks, both immediate and delayed, threatening their evolutionary persistence. Yet, genetic associations with asexuality may refresh the gene pool promoting adaptation of clonal lineages; polyploidy is one of them. Parthenogenesis itself and/or polyploidy are responsible for the maintenance and spread of clones in Artemia, a sexual-asexual genus of halophilic anostracans. We applied flow cytometry, microsatellite genotyping, and mtDNA sequencing to 23 asexual populations. Artemia parthenogens have evolved multiple times either through hybridization or spontaneously. Nine out of 23 populations contained clones of mixed ploidy (2n, 3n, 4n). Most clones were diploid (20/31) while two and nine clones were triploid and tetraploid, respectively. Apomictic triploids and tetraploids formed two distinct groups of low genetic diversity compared with the more divergent automictic diploids. Polyploidy is also polyphyletic in Artemia, with triploids and tetraploids having independent origins from different sexual ancestors. We discern a pattern of geographical parthenogenesis with all clonal groups being more widespread than their closest sexuals. In favour of a specialist model, asexual diploids are restricted to single locations and are strikingly segregated from generalist triploids and tetraploids occupying a variety of sites. This is a rare pattern of mixed life-history strategies within an asexual complex.     

Maintenance of androdioecy in the freshwater shrimp, Eulimnadia texana: do hermaphrodites need males for complete fertilization?

Androdioecy (populations comprised of mixtures of males and hermaphrodites) is a rare mating system, found only in a few plants and animals. The rarity of this system stems from the limited benefits to males in an otherwise all-hermaphroditic population. One of the potential benefits to males is typified by the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, in which hermaphrodites do not produce sufficient sperm to fertilize all of their eggs. Here we explore the possibility that males are needed for complete fertilization of hermaphrodites' eggs in a second androdioecious animal, the clam shrimp Eulimnadia texana. We compare the fertilization rate of outcrossed to selfed eggs to test whether the latter exhibit lower fertilization due to sperm limitation (as in C. elegans). Because this comparison confounds differences in egg fertilization due to sperm limitation with the potential for early inbreeding depression, we also used a third mating treatment, a brother/sister cross, to allow separation of sperm limitation from inbreeding depression. In both populations examined, the proportion of eggs that were fertilized decreased linearly with increasing relatedness: comparing eggs produced by outcrossing, brother/sister, and selfed matings, respectively. This pattern suggests that differences in fertilization among these three treatments were caused solely by inbreeding depression, and therefore that hermaphrodites are not sperm limited. These results are combined with previous data on this species to test whether the maintenance of males can be explained using a population genetics model specifically designed for this species.     

Some ultrastructural and functional aspects of the golgi àpparatus of Thelohania sp. (Microsporida) in the shrimp Pandalus jordani Rathbun.

Electron microscope observations on Thelohania sp. in the shrimp Pandalus jordani support the view that the Golgi complex in Microsporida is a "classical" one, composed of vesicular, vacuolar, and cisternal components. During development of the sporoblast, a portion of the Golgi complex is seen as an electron-dense reticulum enmeshing the core of the polar filament. Associated with the reticulum are electron-dense bodies. The reticulum and "dense bodies," reported in several previous publications, have not been well understood and have been given a variety of names. The evidence favors the view that these structures have secretory activity in which the reticulum concentrates or synthesized material, some of which takes the form of membrane-bounded granules. It is suggested that the most appropriate name for the reticulum is "reticulum golgien," and the the correct name for the "dense bodies" is the standard cytologic term, "secretion granules." The secretion granules apparently remain in the posterior part of the spore, and may be stored there for some as yet undetermined use.     

Molecular cloning of prophenoloxidase and the effects of dietary β-glucan and rutin on immune response in hemocytes of the fleshy shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis

To investigate the effects of dietary β-glucan (0.5 or 1?g?kg(-1) diet: 0.5-BG, 1-BG) and rutin (0.5 or 1?g?kg(-1) diet: 0.5-RT, 1-RT) after 10 days in the absence of pathogen challenge on the immune response of Fenneropenaeus chinensis, we determined total hemocyte count (THC) and the expression of four immune-related genes in hemocytes: those for prophenoloxidase (proPO), peroxinectin (PX), lipopolysaccharide and/or β-glucan binding protein (LGBP), and c-type lectin (CL). As a prerequisite for subsequent experiments, cDNA encoding proPO of the fleshy shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis (f-proPO) was obtained from hemocytes; it had a full length of 3023bp, with an open reading frame (ORF) of 2061bp, a 105-bp 5'-untranslated region, and a 906-bp 3'-untranslated region containing the poly A signal. The THCs of shrimp fed β-glucan of 1?g?kg(-1) diet, and rutin of 1?g?kg(-1) diet were significantly higher than that of the control (P?相似文献