scholarly journals Evolution of Pinnipedia lactation strategies: a potential role for α-lactalbumin?

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 546-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Coralie M Reich ◽  
John P.Y Arnould

Despite the considerable variation in milk composition found among mammals, a constituent common across all groups is lactose, the main sugar and osmole in most eutherians milk. Exceptions to this are the families Otariidae (fur seals and sea lions) and Odobenidae (walruses), where lactose has not been detected. We investigated the molecular basis for this by cloning α-lactalbumin, the modifier protein of the lactose synthase complex. A mutation was observed which, in addition to preventing lactose production, may enable otariids to maintain lactation despite the extremely long inter-suckling intervals during the mother's time at sea foraging (more than 23 days in some species).

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Monique Ladds ◽  
David Rosen ◽  
Carling Gerlinsky ◽  
David Slip ◽  
Robert Harcourt

Abstract Physiology places constraints on an animal’s ability to forage and those unable to adapt to changing conditions may face increased challenges to reproduce and survive. As the global marine environment continues to change, small, air-breathing, endothermic marine predators such as otariids (fur seals and sea lions) and particularly females, who are constrained by central place foraging during breeding, may experience increased difficulties in successfully obtaining adequate food resources. We explored whether physiological limits of female otariids may be innately related to body morphology (fur seals vs sea lions) and/or dictate foraging strategies (epipelagic vs mesopelagic or benthic). We conducted a systematic review of the increased body of literature since the original reviews of Costa et al. (When does physiology limit the foraging behaviour of freely diving mammals? Int Congr Ser 2004;1275:359–366) and Arnould and Costa (Sea lions in drag, fur seals incognito: insights from the otariid deviants. In Sea Lions of the World Fairbanks. Alaska Sea Grant College Program, Alaska, USA, pp. 309–324, 2006) on behavioural (dive duration and depth) and physiological (total body oxygen stores and diving metabolic rates) parameters. We estimated calculated aerobic dive limit (cADL—estimated duration of aerobic dives) for species and used simulations to predict the proportion of dives that exceeded the cADL. We tested whether body morphology or foraging strategy was the primary predictor of these behavioural and physiological characteristics. We found that the foraging strategy compared to morphology was a better predictor of most parameters, including whether a species was more likely to exceed their cADL during a dive and the ratio of dive time to cADL. This suggests that benthic and mesopelagic divers are more likely to be foraging at their physiological capacity. For species operating near their physiological capacity (regularly exceeding their cADL), the ability to switch strategies is limited as the cost of foraging deeper and longer is disproportionally high, unless it is accompanied by physiological adaptations. It is proposed that some otariids may not have the ability to switch foraging strategies and so be unable adapt to a changing oceanic ecosystem.


2010 ◽  
Vol 134 (12) ◽  
pp. 1740-1749
Author(s):  
Yunyi Kong ◽  
Suresh M. Kumar ◽  
Xiaowei Xu

Abstract Recent advances in molecular genetics and cancer stem cell biology have shed some light on the molecular basis of melanomagenesis. In this review, we will focus on major genetic alterations in the melanoma, particularly pathways involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis, and tumor suppression. The potential role of melanoma-initiating cells during melanomagenesis and progression will also be discussed. Understanding pathogenesis of melanoma may uncover new diagnostic clues and therapeutic targets for this increasingly prevalent disease.


1999 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon D. Goldsworthy ◽  
Helen M. Crowley

The composition of milk collected from 36 antarctic (Arctocephalus gazella) and 17 subantarctic fur seals (A. tropicalis) breeding sympatrically at Macquarie Island was examined over the first 100 days of lactation in the 1990/91 season. The mean composition of milk in A. gazella and A. tropicalis was 41.3% and 44.6% water, 39.8% and 38.6% lipid, 18.1% and 16.1% protein, and the estimated gross energy content of milk was 19.9 and 18.9 kJ g–1, respectively. Neither the composition of milk nor its energy density differed significantly between species, despite a difference of 4–6 months in lactation length. Water content of milk could be used to predict lipid (r2 = 0.67) and protein (r2 = 0.57) content, but was most accurate at predicting gross energy content (r2 = 0.97). These relationships were the same for each species. The water content of milk decreased throughout the first 100 days of lactation in both species, while lipid, protein and energy content all increased. The addition of maternal mass into regression analysis with days post-partum increased the significance of models predicting the content of lipid and proteins in the milk, but not those predicting the water or gross energy content. Milk collected on the first day of 2-day attendance bouts had, on average, 9% greater lipid content, and 5% greater protein content than milk collected on the second day. The growth rates of subantarctic fur seal pups were significantly lower than those of antarctic fur seal pups over the first month of growth, suggesting that (despite similar milk composition, attendance patterns and diet of the two species of fur seal) the overall rates of energy transfer from mother to pup in subantarctic fur seals is lower than in antarctic fur seals.


Nematology ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 615-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Nadler

AbstractPractitioners of nematode taxonomy have rarely been explicit about what species represent or how data are being used to delimit species prior to their description. This lack of explicitness reflects the broader species problem common to all biology: there is no universally accepted idea of what species are and, as a consequence, scientists disagree on how to go about finding species in nature. However, like other biologists, nematologists seem to agree that species are real and discrete units in nature, and that they result from descent with modification. This evolutionary perspective provides a conceptual framework for nematologists to view species as independent evolutionary lineages, and provides approaches for their delimitation. Specifically, species may be delimited scientifically by methods that can test the hypothesis of lineage independence. For sequence data, such hypothesis testing should be based on sampling many individual organisms for multiple loci to avoid mistaking tokogeny and gene trees as evidence of species. Evolutionary approaches to analysing data and delimiting species avoid the inherent pitfalls in approaches that use all observed sequence differences to define species through calculation of a genetic distance. To illustrate evolutionary species delimitation, molecular data are used to test the hypothesis that hookworms parasitic in northern fur seals and in California sea lions represent separate species. The advantages and potential caveats of employing nucleotide sequence data for species delimitation are discussed, and the merits of evolutionary approaches are contrasted to inherent problems in similarity-based methods.


Author(s):  
Roger Kirkwood ◽  
Simon Goldsworthy

Fur seals and sea lions are charismatic, large carnivores that engage us with both their skill and playful antics. Although all species in Australian waters were harvested to near extinction 200 years ago, fur seals are recovering and are now common in near-shore waters across southern Australia. Sea lions, however, are endangered. Their populations appear not to have recovered like fur seals and are declining at some locations. Fur seals and sea lions are important top level predators and play an important role in Australia’s temperate marine ecosystems. Key threats they currently face relate to human activities, particularly interactions with fisheries. This book outlines the comparative evolutionary ecology, biology, life-history, behaviour, conservation status, threats, history of human interactions and latest research on the three species of otariids that live in the waters of southern Australia: the Australian fur seal, New Zealand fur seal and Australian sea lion. It also includes brief descriptions of Antarctic and Subantarctic seals that occupy the Antarctic pack-ice and remote Australian territories of Macquarie Island and Heard Island.


2012 ◽  
Vol 93 (4) ◽  
pp. 1006-1016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico G. Riet-Sapriza ◽  
PÁdraig J. Duignan ◽  
B. Louise Chilvers ◽  
Ian S. Wilkinson ◽  
Nicolás Lopez-Villalobos ◽  
...  

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