Internal fertilization in the salp Thalia democratica

2009 ◽  
Vol 87 (10) ◽  
pp. 928-940 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Boldrin ◽  
G. Martinucci ◽  
L. Z. Holland ◽  
R. L. Miller ◽  
P. Burighel

Among tunicates, gamete morphology and sperm–egg interactions have been extensively investigated in ascidians, and to a lesser extent in appendicularians and thaliaceans. Sperm–egg interaction has been studied in only one salp, Pegea socia (Bosc, 1802). To determine if the pattern of internal fertilization of P. socia is generally applicable to salps, we performed an ultrastructural study on blastozooids of Thalia democratica (Forsskål, 1775). The ovary, located in the mantle near the gut, consists of a single oocyte connected to the atrial chamber wall by a “fertilization duct”, resembling a stack of single cells without a lumen. The flagellate sperm has a long corkscrew-like head with the single mitochondrion twisted around the nucleus. Fertilization is internal, and sperm actively penetrate the atrial wall and bore through the cells of the fertilization duct. During this process, the fertilization duct shortens as the cells move apart, one to one side and the next to the other, and rejoin to form a central lumen, which contains many sperm. At the same time a few sperm reach the periovular space for fertilizing the oocyte. Comparisons with P. socia indicate that this singular mode of internal fertilization with a complex corkscrew sperm actively penetrating the fertilization duct cells, probably evolved in the salp ancestor and has been modified to some extent in various genera.

Author(s):  
S.R. Allegra

The respective roles of the ribo somes, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus and perhaps nucleus in the synthesis and maturation of melanosomes is still the subject of some controversy. While the early melanosomes (premelanosomes) have been frequently demonstrated to originate as Golgi vesicles, it is undeniable that these structures can be formed in cells in which Golgi system is not found. This report was prompted by the findings in an essentially amelanotic human cellular blue nevus (melanocytoma) of two distinct lines of melanocytes one of which was devoid of any trace of Golgi apparatus while the other had normal complement of this organelle.


Author(s):  
Masako Yamada ◽  
Yutaka Tanuma

Although many fine structural studies on the vertebrate liver have been reported on mammals, avians, reptiles, amphibians, teleosts and cyclostomes, there are no studies on elasmobranchii liver except one by T. Ito etal. (1962) who studied it on light microscopic level. The purpose of the present study was to as certain the ultrastructural details and cytochemical characteristics of normal elasmobranchii liver and was to compare with the other higher vertebrate ones.Seventeen Scyliorhinus torazame, one kind of elasmobranchii, were obtained from the fish stock of the Ueno Zoo aquarium, Ueno, Tokyo. The sharks weighing about 300-600g were anesthetized with MS-222 (Sigma), and the livers were fixed by perfusion fixation via the portal vein according to the procedure of Y. Saito et al. (1980) for 10 min. Then the liver tissues were immersed in the same fixative for 2 hours and postfixed with 1% OsO4-solution in 0.1 Mc acodylate buffer for one hour. In order to make sure a phagocytic activity of Kupffer cells, latex particles (0.8 μm in diameter, 0.05mg/100 g b.w.) were injected through the portal vein for one min before fixation. For preservation of lipid droplets in the cytoplasm, a series of these procedure were performed under ice cold temperature until the end of dehydration.


BMC Zoology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ansa E. Cobham ◽  
Christen K. Mirth

Abstract Background Organisms show an incredibly diverse array of body and organ shapes that are both unique to their taxon and important for adapting to their environment. Achieving these specific shapes involves coordinating the many processes that transform single cells into complex organs, and regulating their growth so that they can function within a fully-formed body. Main text Conceptually, body and organ shape can be separated in two categories, although in practice these categories need not be mutually exclusive. Body shape results from the extent to which organs, or parts of organs, grow relative to each other. The patterns of relative organ size are characterized using allometry. Organ shape, on the other hand, is defined as the geometric features of an organ’s component parts excluding its size. Characterization of organ shape is frequently described by the relative position of homologous features, known as landmarks, distributed throughout the organ. These descriptions fall into the domain of geometric morphometrics. Conclusion In this review, we discuss the methods of characterizing body and organ shape, the developmental programs thought to underlie each, highlight when and how the mechanisms regulating body and organ shape might overlap, and provide our perspective on future avenues of research.


2000 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tricia S. Clement ◽  
Thomas R. Zentall

We tested the hypothesis that pigeons could use a cognitively efficient coding strategy by training them on a conditional discrimination (delayed symbolic matching) in which one alternative was correct following the presentation of one sample (one-to-one), whereas the other alternative was correct following the presentation of any one of four other samples (many-to-one). When retention intervals of different durations were inserted between the offset of the sample and the onset of the choice stimuli, divergent retention functions were found. With increasing retention interval, matching accuracy on trials involving any of the many-to-one samples was increasingly better than matching accuracy on trials involving the one-to-one sample. Furthermore, following this test, pigeons treated a novel sample as if it had been one of the many-to-one samples. The data suggest that rather than learning each of the five sample-comparison associations independently, the pigeons developed a cognitively efficient single-code/default coding strategy.


1963 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Kaudewitz ◽  
K. Moebus ◽  
H. Kneser

Cells of E. coli incubated in nitrous acid give rise 1. to unchanged wildtype colonies, 2. to colonies composed of wildtype and auxotrophic cells and 3. to colonies consisting of auxotrophic cells only. The mixed colonies are considered to originate from single cells each of them harbouring hybrid DNA with one subunit, probably a sisterstrand, changed by deamination of a cytosine or adenine, the other one with unchanged wildtype composition. In cells producing type 3 colonies this wildtype strand is mutated lethally by a separate deamination of a cytosine or adenine. A mathematical treatment of this hypothesis leads to predictions which are in good agreement with experimental evidence. The data obtained are used for an estimation of the number of gene-loci of E. coli.


The object of the general investigation, of which the commencement is given in this paper, is to determine the relative composition of the various resins which occur in nature, and to trace the analogies they exhibit in their constitution; and also to ascertain how far they may be regarded as being derived from one common principle, and whether they admit of being all represented by one or more general formulæ. The chemical investigation of the resin of mastic shows that this substance consists of two resins; the one soluble, and acid; the other insoluble, and having no acid properties. The formulæ expressing the analysis of each of these are given by the author. He also shows that a series of analyses may be obtained which do not indicate the true constitution of a resin. The soluble resin, when exposed to the prolonged action of a heat exceeding 300° Fahr. is partly converted into a resin containing three, and partly into one containing five equivalent parts of oxygen, the proportion of carbon remaining constant. The same resin combines with bases, so as to form four series of salts; which, in the case of oxide of lead, consist of equivalents of resin and of oxide in the proportions, respectively, of two to one; three to two; one to one; and one to two. This soluble resin in combining with bases does not part with any of its oxygen; but if any change takes place in its constitution, it consists in the hydrogen being replaced by an equivalent proportion of a metal; and formulæ are given representing the salts of lead on this theoretical view. By boiling the resin in contact with ammonia and nitrate of silver, or perhaps with nitrate of ammonia, it is converted into a resin which forms a bisalt with oxide of silver, in winch there is also an apparent replacement of hydrogen by silver .


2001 ◽  
Vol 28 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 7-38
Author(s):  
Nicola McLelland

Summary This article adapts Linn’s ‘stylistics of standardization’ concept, which Linn (1998) has used to compare Norwegian and Faroese grammarians, to look at grammaticization processes in the first two grammars of German (Albertus 1573, Ölinger 1574). While both are clearly indebted to traditional Latin grammar and humanist ideals, these two grammars differ interestingly in the picture of the language that emerges from their metalanguage and structural principles. In his reflection on the language, his structuring and naming of linguistic phenomena and his attitudes to variation, Ölinger is the practical pedagogue, who imposes systematicity and aims for a one-to-one form-function relationship. Albertus on the other hand, though he too envisages his grammar being used for learning German, has a more cultural patriotic motivation, celebrating the richness and variety of German, worthy to be ranked alongside Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Albertus and Ölinger thus come up with quite different versions of the (as yet arguably non-existent) High German language. Each grammar yields a different subset of possible forms, reminding us that grammar-writing is always a task of creative construction.


1980 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Warwick Zeamer

Suppose F is an additively written free group of countably infinite rank with basis T and let E = End(F). If we add endomorphisms pointwise on T and multiply them by map composition, E becomes a near-ring. In her paper “On Varieties of Groups and their Associated Near Rings” Hanna Neumann studied the sub-near-ring of E consisting of the endomorphisms of F of finite support, that is, those endomorphisms taking almost all of the elements of T to zero. She called this near-ring Φω. Now it happens that the ideals of Φω are in one to one correspondence with varieties of groups. Moreover this correspondence is a monoid isomorphism where the ideals of φω are multiplied pointwise. The aim of Neumann's paper was to use this isomorphism to show that any variety can be written uniquely as a finite product of primes, and it was in this near-ring theoretic context that this problem was first raised. She succeeded in showing that the left cancellation law holds for varieties (namely, U(V) = U′(V) implies U = U′) and that any variety can be written as a finite product of primes. The other cancellation law proved intractable. Later, unique prime factorization of varieties was proved by Neumann, Neumann and Neumann, in (7). A concise proof using these same wreath product techniques was also given in H. Neumann's book (6). These proofs, however, bear no relation to the original near-ring theoretic statement of the problem.


2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (7) ◽  
pp. 739-743
Author(s):  
Kyunghwan Kim

The activity-on-arrow (AOA) method can be used in construction projects depending on the project condition, although it is relatively inefficient as compared to the activity-on-node (AON) method. The most critical problem of the AOA method that is yet to be resolved is the application of a logical dummy activity (dummy). This paper presents a heuristic method that can be used for systematically identifying and applying logical dummies during the creation of an AOA network based on predefined activity dependencies. The heuristic method first identifies logical dummies of one-to-one relationships, and then detects the other multiple relationships in a stepwise manner to remove the redundancies therein.


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