Aspartate and Alanine Aminotransferases in Early Development of the Keta

We studied the activities of the marker enzymes of physiological state and adaptive reactions, aspartate and alanine aminotransferases, in early development of the keta Oncorhynchus keta. Aspartate aminotransferase with pH optima 6.8, 7.0, 7.6, and 8.0 and alanine aminotransferase with pH optima 7.0, 7.4, 7.6, 7.8, 8.0, and 8.2 were found in the eggs, larvae, and fry. The succession of enzymes with different pH takes place during ontogenesis, as well as stage specific changes in their activity. The maximum enzymatic activity was recorded in the larvae during their rise for afloat. A correlation was established between the dynamics of enzymatic activity and soluble nitrogen and amine nitrogen contents.     

Effects of Neonatal Treatments on Pain and Audiogenic Sensitivity and Brain Content of Monoamines in Adult Rats

In adult Wistar, KM, and Wag/Rij rats, the threshold of pain sensitivity (tail-flick test) and audiogenic sensitivity were estimated after neonatal administration of Semax (analog of ACTG_4–10 fragment) or after placebo (administration of saline for the control of the effect of neonatal pain stimulation). These neonatal treatments did no affect the rates of sensomotor development at an early age (Fox tests), i.e., did not affect directly the physiological activity of rat pups at the age of up to 21 days. In all control rats injected with saline (pain stimulation), the latencies of audiogenic fits increased reliably, while their degree decreased. Administration of Semax raised these parameters to the level of those in intact animals, i.e., increased the sensitivity to sound. Neonatal administration (per os) of caffeine to KM rats increased reliably the latency of audiogenic fits. The thresholds of pain sensitivity in the rats of all strains were significantly lower saline injected animals than in the intact control, just as the level of dopamine in the hippocampus of KM rats. These data are interpreted as an evidence of changes in the development of some brain systems in response to neonatal treatments.     

Are all grandmothers equal? A review and a preliminary test of the “grandmother hypothesis” in Tokugawa Japan

An unresolved question arising from human evolutionary research relates to the function of the postreproductive period in human females. If menopause is not merely an artifact resulting from the benefits of civilization, there must be an adaptive mechanism favoring the offspring of women who continue to thrive well past the time of their last ovulation. The "grandmother hypothesis" was developed on the basis of the original suggestion by Williams (1957 Evolution 11:32-39) that "stopping early" would benefit already-born children. This idea, combined with the concepts of kin selection (Hamilton 1964 J Theor Biol 7:1-52) and parental investment (Trivers 1972 Sexual Selection and the Descent of Man, Chicago: Aldine, p. 136-179), was expanded to suggest that postreproductive women (in contrast to males) contribute to their inclusive fitness by extending support to their grandchildren. We used discrete time event history analysis (Allison [1984] Event History Analysis, Newbury Park: Sage; Allison [1995] Survival Analysis, Cary, NC: SAS Institute) and logistic regression on data provided in population registers (Shūmon Aratame Chō, or SAC) from a village in central Japan, covering the period from 1671-1871, in a preliminary investigation of the effects of household grandparental presence on the probability of a child's death. We found that after accounting for the presence of other household members, the only grandparent whose presence exerted a consistent negative effect on the likelihood of a child's death was the mother's mother. Due to the small sample size of households that contained maternal grandmothers, these results failed to achieve statistical significance. Their importance, however, is in what they suggest about future research, i.e., census data from preindustrial societies can provide a basis for testing evolutionary proposals, including the "grandmother hypothesis."     

Late pleistocene human femoral diaphyseal curvature

Anterior femoral curvature is a consistent characteristic of Pleistocene and recent humans, although variation exists in the degree of curvature among individuals and across populations. In particular, one group, the Neandertals, has been characterized for a century as having marked femoral curvature. To evaluate the degree of anterior femoral curvature in both Neandertals and other Late Pleistocene humans, their curvature subtenses and proximodistal positions were evaluated in the context of recent human variation. Recent human comparisons show little relationship between subtense (absolute curvature) and femoral length, suggesting that an index that incorporates subtense relative to the length of the femur is inappropriate for between-group assessments. Neandertals were statistically indistinguishable from Middle or earlier Upper Paleolithic modern humans in the degree of absolute curvature, all of whom had greater curvature on average than all later humans. Additionally, Neandertals and Qafzeh-Skhul early modern humans had a more distal point of maximum curvature than any other group. Curvature was not strongly correlated with functional considerations including body mass estimates, surrogate variables for body size, proximal femoral articular orientation, or knee anteroposterior dimensions. The functional role of femoral anterior curvature is unknown; however, the general decrease in curvature subtense closely parallels the between-group changes in inferred levels of mobility from femoral diaphyseal robusticity and shape, suggesting that femoral curvature may reflect mobility levels and patterns among Late Pleistocene and recent humans.     

Factors predicting increased incidence of abnormal behavior in male pigtailed macaques

To identify factors predicting abnormal behavior in laboratory monkeys, we observed all available singly housed 4- to 11-year-old male pigtailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina), the species/age/sex group most likely to be referred to the Washington National Primate Research Center's Psychological Well-Being Program for behavioral assessment. Of the 87 subjects, 29 had been referred to the program whereas 58 had not. Abnormal behavior was unrelated to the subject's housing location (biocontainment vs. other facility) or invasiveness of research. Nursery-reared subjects displayed more abnormal behavior than mother-reared subjects. Across and within rearing categories, the proportion of the first 48 months of life spent singly housed was positively related to the amount of abnormal behavior at maturity. This effect was stronger for subjects separated from the mother for clinical rather than experimental reasons, and least for mother-reared subjects. Locomotor stereotypy, by far the most frequent form of abnormal behavior, was positively related to time in single housing but was unrelated to rearing. These results reinforce the importance of tactile social contact during juvenility for the prevention of abnormal behavior in social primates. They also suggest that self-directed abnormal behaviors and locomotor stereotypies have different etiologies.     

Fertilization,syngamy, and early embryonic development in the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus (De Geer)

Fertilization and early embryonic mitoses of the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus were examined by fluorescence staining of whole-mount as well as squash preparations. Egg meiosis occurs near the ventral surface of the egg, while sperm transforms into a sperm pronucleus in the cytoplasmic island on the dorsal side. After meiosis, the egg pronucleus moves across the egg toward the sperm pronucleus in the island, where union of these nuclei occurs. The first cleavage mitosis is gonomeric, as in insects such as Pyrrhocoris, Drosophila, and Bombyx. After the third cleavage the synchrony of nuclear division is lost and the dividing nuclei are distributed all over the egg by 12 h after deposition.