In Australia, the rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) has been used since 1996 to reduce numbers of introduced European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus)which have a devastating impact on the native Australian environment. RHDV causes regular, short disease outbreaks, but little is known about how the virus persists and survives between epidemics. We examined the initial spread of RHDV to s…
Both natural animal populations and those in captivity are subject to evolutionary forces. Evolutionary changes to captive populations may be an important, but poorly understood, factor that can affect the sustainability of these populations. The importance of maintaining the evolutionary integrity of zoo populations,especially those that are used for conservation efforts including reintroducti…
To forecast the responses of species to future climate change, an understanding of the ability of species to adapt to long-term shifts in temperature is crucial. We present a review on evolutionary adaptation and phenotypic plasticity of temperature-related traits in terrestrial invertebrates. The evidence for adaptive evolution in melanization is good, but we caution that genetic determinatio…
A central question in evolutionary biology is how interactions between organisms and the environment shape genetic differentiation. The pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has caused variable population declines in the lowland leopard frog (Lithobates yavapaiensis); thus, disease has potentially shaped, or been shaped by, host genetic diversity. Environmental factors can also influence…
The importance of evolution in enhancing the invasiveness of species is not well understood, especially in animals. To evaluate evolution in crayfish invasions,we tested for differences in growth rate, survival, and response to predators between native and invaded range populations of rusty crayfish (Orconectes rusticus). We hypothesized that low conspecific densities during introductions into …
Compared to natural selection, domestication implies a dramatic change in traits linked to fitness. A number of traits conferring fitness in the wild might be detrimental under domestication, and domesticated species typically differ from their ancestors in a set of traits known as the domestication syndrome. Specifically,trade-offs between growth and reproduction are well established across th…
Flowering time divergence can be a crucial component of reproductive isolation between sympatric populations, but few studies have quantified its actual contribution to the reduction of gene flow. In this study, we aimed at estimating pollen-mediated gene flow between cultivated sunflower and a weedy conspecific sunflower population growing in the same field and at quantifying, how it is affect…
Metabolic rate is one of the most widely measured physiological traits in animals and may be influenced by both endogenous (e.g. body mass) and exogenous factors (e.g. oxygen availability and temperature). Standard metabolic rate (SMR) and maximum metabolic rate (MMR) are two fundamental physiological variables providing the floor and ceiling in aerobic energy metabolism. The total amount of en…
In light of an increasing trend in fish biology towards using static respirometry techniques without the inclusion of a mixing mechanism and without accurately accounting for the influence of microbial (background) respiration, this paper quantifies the effect of these approaches on the oxygen consumption rates ( ˙MO2) measured from juvenile barramundi Lates calcarifer (mean±s.e. mass=20⋅31…
Recently, genetic strategies aimed at controlling populations of disease-vectoring mosquitoes have received considerable attention as alternatives to traditional measures. Theoretical studies have shown that female-killing (FK), antipathogen m(AP), and reduce and replace (R&R) strategies can each decrease the number competent vectors. In this study, we utilize a mathematical model to evaluate i…
I summarize marine studies on plastic versus adaptive responses to global change. Due to the lack of time series, this review focuses largely on the potential for adaptive evolution in marine animals and plants. The approaches were mainly synchronic comparisons of phenotypically divergent populations, substituting spatial contrasts in temperature or CO2 environments for temporal changes, or in …
Interspecific hybridization occurs in nature but can also be caused by human actions. It often leads to infertile or fertile hybrids that exclude one parental genome during gametogenesis, escaping genetic recombination and ntrogression. The threat that genome-exclusion hybridization might represent on parental species is poorly understood, especially when invasive species are involved. Here, we…
The microsporidian Loma morhua infects Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) in the wild and in culture and results in the formation of xenomas within the gill filaments, heart and spleen. Given the importance of the two former organs to metabolic capacity and thermal tolerance, the cardiorespiratory performance of cod with a naturally acquired infection of Loma was measured during an acute temperatur…
Artemisinin-based drugs are the front-line weapon in the treatment of human malaria cases, but there is concern that recent reports of slow clearing infections may signal developing resistance to treatment. In the absence of molecular markers for resistance, current efforts to monitor drug efficacy are based on the rate at which parasites are cleared from infections. However, some knowledge of …
While nonanadromous males (stream-resident and/or mature male parr) contribute to reproduction in anadromous salmonids, little is known about their impacts on key population genetic parameters. Here, we evaluated the contribution of Atlantic salmon mature male parr to the effective number of breeders (Nb) using both demographic (variance in reproductive success) and genetic (linkage disequilibr…
Understanding the effects of inbreeding and genetic drift within populations and hybridization between genetically differentiated populations is important for many basic and applied questions in ecology and evolutionary biology. The magnitudes and even the directions of these effects can be influenced by various factors,especially by the current and historical population size (i.e. inbreeding r…
Metabolic costs can be extremely high in marine fish larvae and gaining reliable estimates of the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on those costs is important to understand environmental constraints on early growth and survival. This review provides an historical perspective of measurements of larval marine fish respiration (O2 consumption) including the methods (Winkler, manometric, …
Humans have exploited the earth’s metal resources for thousands of years leaving behind a legacy of toxic metal contamination and poor water quality. The southwest of England provides a well-defined example, with a rich history of metal mining dating to the Bronze Age. Mine water washout continues to negatively impact water quality across the region where brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) populat…
Predicting the geographic spread of wildlife epidemics requires knowledge about the movement patterns of disease hosts or vectors. The field of landscape genetics provides valuable approaches to study dispersal indirectly, which in turn may be used to understand patterns of disease spread. Here, we applied landscape genetic analyses and spatially explicit models to identify the potential path o…
Remnant areas hosting natural vegetation in agricultural landscapes can impact the disease epidemiology and evolutionary dynamics of crop pathogens. However,the potential consequences for crop diseases of the composition, the spatial configuration and the persistence time of the agro-ecological interface – the area where crops and remnant vegetation are in contact – have been poorly studied…
Domestication has resulted in selection upon seed traits found in wild populations,yet crop-wild hybrids retain some aspects of both parental phenotypes. Seed fates of germination, dormancy, and mortality can influence the success of crop allele introgression in crop-wild hybrid zones, especially if crop alleles or crop-imparted seed coverings result in out-of-season germination. We performed …
The detection rates of stationary acoustic transmitters deployed at three depths on two Atlantic salmon Salmo salar cage farms for c. 2 months were investigated. Deployment depth, time of day, day of the year and specific incidences at the farm substantially affected the rate of signal detection by the receiver. of Fish Biology published on behalf of The Fisheries Society of the British Isles…
Anthropogenic habitat fragmentation has altered the distribution and population sizes in many organisms worldwide. For this reason, understanding the demographic and genetic consequences of this process is necessary to predict the fate of populations and establish management practices aimed to ensure their viability. In this study, we analyse whether the spatial configuration of remnant semina…
Structural environmental enrichment, that is, a deliberate addition of physical complexity to the rearing environment, is sometimes utilized to reduce the expression of the undesirable traits that fish develop in captivity. Increasing demands and regulations regarding usage of enrichment to promote fish welfare also make investigations on the effects of enrichment important. Here, we sythesize …
The relationship between genetic variation and phenotypic traits is fundamental to the study and management of natural populations. Such relationships often are investigated by assessing correlations between phenotypic traits and heterozygosity or genetic differentiation. Using an extensive data set compiled from freeranging mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), we combined genetic and ecological da…
Maximum (aerobic) metabolic rate (MMR) is defined here as the maximum rate of oxygen consumption (Ṁ O2max) that a fish can achieve at a given temperature under any ecologically relevant circumstance. Different techniques exist for eliciting MMR of fishes, of which swim-flume respirometry (critical swimming speed tests and burst-swimming protocols) and exhaustive chases are the most common. Av…
Streptococcus parauberis is an increasing threat to aquaculture of olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus Temminck & Schlegel, in South Korea. We developed a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method using the TaqMan probe assay to detect and quantify S. parauberis by targeting the gyrB gene sequences, which are effective for molecular analysis of the genus Streptococcus. Our real-time …
Accounting for energy use by fishes has been taking place for over 200 years. The original, and continuing gold standard for measuring energy use in terrestrial animals, is to account for the waste heat produced by all reactions of metabolism, a process referred to as direct calorimetry. Direct calorimetry is not easy or convenient in terrestrial animals and is extremely difficult in aquatic an…
The problem of ecosystem overfishing has mostly focused on the function of forage fish as prey for apex predators. Here, I consider another ecosystem function, herbivory,that affects habitat quality. Parrotfish are an important fishery in many parts of the Caribbean and the dominant herbivorous fish on its coral reefs. Herbivory helps to control macroalgae which compete with coral and can impe…
Invasion success may be expected to increase with residence time (i.e., time since first introduction) and secondary releases (i.e., those that follow the original introduction), but this has rarely been tested in natural fish populations. We compared genetic and phenotypic divergence in rainbow trout and brown trout in Chile and the Falkland Islands to test the prediction that adaptive diverge…
We review the hypothesized and observed effects of two of the major forms of genomic conflicts, genomic imprinting and sexual antagonism, on human health. We focus on phenotypes mediated by peptide and steroid hormones (especially oxytocin and testosterone) because such hormones centrally mediate patterns of physical and behavioral resource allocation that underlie both forms of conflict. In e…
In many areas of food processing it is desirable to reduce the length of protein molecules. The two most commonly used methods employ either inorganic acids or proteolytic enzymes to cleave peptide bonds between adjacent amino acids. Proteolytic enzymes can reduce the viscosity of aqueous protein mixtures as well as the volume of insolubles. In the Alaskan seafood industry, liquification of pro…
Background: Studies on the nutritional and health benefits of pulses have stimulated interest in using whole pulses and pulse fractions in novel value-added food products. In this study the effects of using different types and concentrations of gums (including xanthan gum [XG], mixtures of XG and gum arabic [GA], XG and propylene glycol alginate [PGA], XG and pectin [PE], and XG and guar gum [G…
Unripe plantain flour was incorporated into whole meal wheat flour at 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% levels to evaluate the effect on some functional properties of the flour and nutrient composition, physical and organoleptic qualities of bread samples produced from the composite flours. A control (100% wholemeal wheat flour) was used for comparison. Water absorption capacity and swelling capacity of t…
The purpose of the present study was to examine the physico-chemical properties, fatty acids composition, unsaponifiable matter, tocopherols and phenolic content of Moringa oleifera seed oil from Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. In addition, biological evaluation of this oil was determined. Moringa oil showed a better overall quality, its, acid, peroxide, iodine, saponification values. Sterol fraction wa…
The present study was focused on the potential of red and white grapefruit peel as a source of pectin. Grapefruit peels were treated with 95% alcohol and the obtained alcohol-insoluble solids (AIS) were subjected to a sequential extraction with hot distilled water and hot 0.5% HCl. Comparative investigations were carried out with purified commercial citrus pectin. Chemical and physicochemical c…
Consumers demand for fresh or fresh like fish products without altering its natural quality attributes will be met by using low temperature preservation particularly chilling. Low temperature preservation is widely practiced in the industry to overcome the spoilage of fish. However, low temperature alone has limited shelf-life which lead to the introduction of innovative packaging interventions…
The human body is an amazing machine which is responsible for making millions processes simultaneously. The ability of this operation is due to a variety of nutrients which are constituted by carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. Each nutrient contributes separately to the proper function of human organism [1].
High blood pressure or hypertension is a major risk factor for a number of chronic diseases among human beings. A progressive rise in blood pressure can lead to haemorrhagic stroke, myocardial infarction, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, cognitive decline and premature death. The past decade has seen a constant increase in prevalence of hypertension among populations because of changes in…
Olive, sunflower oils and binary oil mixtures were continuously heated at 180˚C for 16hr. Aliquots of potato chips were fried in the aforementioned oil samples. Effect of deep-fat frying on these blends was studied by assessing the changes in percent fat absorption and physico-chemical properties during repeated frying process (four times). The physico-chemical properties like refractive index…
Investigations were carried out on development quality evaluation and shelf life studies of buffalo meat emulsion sausage prepared by different levels of fat and skimmed milk powder (SMP) at refrigerated storage temperature (0°C). The quality of emulsion sausage was based on the basis of physico-chemical characteristics namely moisture content, pH, protein content, TBA number, microbial charac…
Antimicrobial properties of phytochemicals extracted from onion (Allium cepa) and ginger (Zingiber officinale) were evaluated against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, two common food borne pathogens. They were tested using minimum inhibitory concentration, minimum bactericidal concentration disc diffusion and agar wells diffusion. Onion showed good antimicrobial properties against S.…
Domestication can have adverse genetic consequences, which may reduce the fitness of individuals once released back into the wild. Many wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) populations are threatened by anthropogenic influences, and they are supplemented with captively bred fish. The Atlantic salmon is also widely used in selective breeding programs to increase the mean trait values for desire…
Waterfowl (Anseriformes) and shorebirds (Charadriiformes) are the most common wild vectors of influenza A viruses. Due to their migratory behavior, some may transmit disease over long distances. Migratory connectivity studies can link breeding and nonbreeding grounds while illustrating potential interactions among populations that may spread diseases. We investigated Dunlin (Calidris alpina), …
Emerging diseases are impacting animals under high-density culture, yet few studies assess their importance to wild populations. Microparasites selected for enhanced virulence in culture settings should be less successful maintaining infectivity in wild populations, as once the host dies, there are limited opportunities to infect new individuals. Instead, moderately virulent microparasites pers…
The paper is an introduction to microbiology, with emphasis on microscopy, bacterial structure, culture methods (enrichment,differential and selective), biochemical identification, serological methods, and an overview of Bacteriology, Mycology and Parasitology. Keywords bacterial structure, microscopy, staining methods,culture methods, serology and fluorescent microscopy, darkfield microscop…
Metabolic rate is a critical factor in animal biology and ecology, providing an objective measure that can be used in attributing a cost to different activities and to assessing what animals do against some optimal behaviour. Ideally, metabolic rate would be estimated directly by measuring heat output but,until recently, this has not been easily tractable with fishes so instead metabolic rate i…
There is increasing interest in documenting and explaining the existence of marked intraspecific variation in metabolic rate in animals, with fishes providing some of the best-studied examples. After accounting for variation due to other factors, there can typically be a two to three-fold variation among individual fishes for both standard and maximum metabolic rate (SMR and MMR). This variatio…
Many studies have recorded phenotypic changes in natural populations and attributed them to climate change. However, controversy and uncertainty has arisen around three levels of inference in such studies. First, it has proven difficult to conclusively distinguish whether phenotypic changes are genetically based or the result of phenotypic plasticity. Second, whether or not the change is adapti…
Recent anthropogenic eutrophication has meant that host plants of nettle-feeding insects became quasi-omnipresent in fertile regions of Western Europe. However,host plant resource quality – in terms of microclimate and nutritional value – may vary considerably between the ‘original’ forest habitat and ‘recent’ agricultural habitat. Here, we compared development in both environmental…