Ecology of the dorylaimid omnivore genera Aporcelaimellus, Eudorylaimus and Mesodorylaimus

Nematology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 645-663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert McSorley
Keyword(s):  
Extreme Environments ◽  
Sandy Soils ◽  
Numerical Data ◽  
Ecological Studies ◽  
Dune Sands ◽  
Adverse Impacts ◽  
Soil Ecosystems ◽  
Multiple Species ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Nematode Fauna

Eudorylaimus, Aporcelaimellus and Mesodorylaimus are dominant members of the omnivorous nematode fauna in Florida, USA. Ecological studies that included numerical data on these genera were reviewed to determine key aspects of their ecology and behaviour. These three genera were also the dominant omnivores in many parts of Europe and often occurred together. Multiple species within genera may be present in samples as well. Although results varied with habitat, these omnivores were present in nearly all stages of succession but often reached their greatest numbers in later stages of succession such as old-growth forests. They also showed remarkable adaptation to extreme environments, including Antarctic habitats, dune sands and temperate sites without vegetation. They were found in a variety of soil types but limited by soil pH < 4.0. Compared with other nematode taxa, they were among the genera most sensitive to moisture levels in sandy soils and to pollution by heavy metals. Some reports also indicated adverse impacts from inorganic fertilisers and other agrichemicals. Much remains unknown about the ecology of these common nematodes, which are widely distributed in soil ecosystems.

scholarly journals Comparison of the transcriptomes of two tardigrades with different hatching coordination

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuki Yoshida ◽  
Kenta Sugiura ◽  
Masaru Tomita ◽  
Midori Matsumoto ◽  
Kazuharu Arakawa
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Embryonic Development ◽  
Juvenile Hormone ◽  
Extreme Environments ◽  
Regulation Mechanism ◽  
Egg Hatching ◽  
Terrestrial Species ◽  
Juvenile Hormone Analog ◽  
Hormone Analog ◽  
Multiple Species

Abstract Background Tardigrades are microscopic organisms, famous for their tolerance against extreme environments. The establishment of rearing systems of multiple species has allowed for comparison of tardigrade physiology, in particular in embryogenesis. Interestingly, in-lab cultures of limnic species showed smaller variation in hatching timing than terrestrial species, suggesting a hatching regulation mechanism acquired by adaptation to their habitat. Results To this end, we screened for coordinated gene expression during the development of two species of tardigrades, Hypsibius exemplaris and Ramazzottius varieornatus, and observed induction of the arthropod molting pathway. Exposure of ecdysteroids and juvenile hormone analog affected egg hatching but not embryonic development in only the limnic H. exemplaris. Conclusion These observations suggest a hatching regulation mechanism by the molting pathway in H. exemplaris.

scholarly journals Liver organoids: from basic research to therapeutic applications

Gut ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (12) ◽  
pp. 2228-2237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Prior ◽  
Patricia Inacio ◽  
Meritxell Huch
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Embryonic Stem ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Human Liver Tissue ◽  
Metabolic Functions ◽  
Induced Pluripotent ◽  
Multiple Species ◽  
Liver Organoids ◽  
Key Aspects

Organoid cultures have emerged as an alternative in vitro system to recapitulate tissues in a dish. While mouse models and cell lines have furthered our understanding of liver biology and associated diseases, they suffer in replicating key aspects of human liver tissue, in particular its complex architecture and metabolic functions. Liver organoids have now been established for multiple species from induced pluripotent stem cells, embryonic stem cells, hepatoblasts and adult tissue-derived cells. These represent a promising addition to our toolbox to gain a deeper understanding of this complex organ. In this perspective we will review the advances in the liver organoid field, its limitations and potential for biomedical applications.

Timing and order of exposure to two echinostome species affect patterns of infection in larval amphibians

Parasitology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 147 (13) ◽  
pp. 1515-1523
Author(s):  
Logan S. Billet ◽  
Vanessa P. Wuerthner ◽  
Jessica Hua ◽  
Rick A. Relyea ◽  
Jason T. Hoverman
Keyword(s):  
Rana Pipiens ◽  
Parasite Species ◽  
Priority Effects ◽  
Ecological Studies ◽  
Field Surveys ◽  
Larval Amphibians ◽  
Lower Infection ◽  
Multiple Species ◽  
Echinostoma Trivolvis ◽  
Timing Of Exposure

AbstractThe study of priority effects with respect to coinfections is still in its infancy. Moreover, existing coinfection studies typically focus on infection outcomes associated with exposure to distinct sets of parasite species, despite that functionally and morphologically similar parasite species commonly coexist in nature. Therefore, it is important to understand how interactions between similar parasites influence infection outcomes. Surveys at seven ponds in northwest Pennsylvania found that multiple species of echinostomes commonly co-occur. Using a larval anuran host (Rana pipiens) and the two most commonly identified echinostome species from our field surveys (Echinostoma trivolvis and Echinoparyphium lineage 3), we examined how species composition and timing of exposure affect patterns of infection. When tadpoles were exposed to both parasites simultaneously, infection loads were higher than when exposed to Echinoparyphium alone but similar to being exposed to Echinostoma alone. When tadpoles were sequentially exposed to the parasite species, tadpoles first exposed to Echinoparyphium had 23% lower infection loads than tadpoles first exposed to Echinostoma. These findings demonstrate that exposure timing and order, even with similar parasites, can influence coinfection outcomes, and emphasize the importance of using molecular methods to identify parasites for ecological studies.

scholarly journals The Importance of Isotopic Turnover for Understanding Key Aspects of Animal Ecology and Nutrition

Diversity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wales A. Carter ◽  
Ulf Bauchinger ◽  
Scott R. McWilliams
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
Turnover Rates ◽  
Ecological Studies ◽  
Marine Systems ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Dietary Shifts ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Isotopic Turnover

Stable isotope-based methods have proved to be immensely valuable for ecological studies ranging in focus from animal movements to species interactions and community structure. Nevertheless, the use of these methods is dependent on assumptions about the incorporation and turnover of isotopes within animal tissues, which are oftentimes not explicitly acknowledged and vetted. Thus, the purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the estimation of stable isotope turnover rates in animals, and to highlight the importance of these estimates for ecological studies in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems that may use a wide range of stable isotopes. Specifically, we discuss 1) the factors that contribute to variation in turnover among individuals and across species, which influences the use of stable isotopes for diet reconstructions, 2) the differences in turnover among tissues that underlie so-called ‘isotopic clocks’, which are used to estimate the timing of dietary shifts, and 3) the use of turnover rates to estimate nutritional requirements and reconstruct histories of nutritional stress from tissue isotope signatures. As we discuss these topics, we highlight recent works that have effectively used estimates of turnover to design and execute informative ecological studies. Our concluding remarks suggest several steps that will improve our understanding of isotopic turnover and support its integration into a wider range of ecological studies.

scholarly journals Probability distributions of helminth parasite burdens within the human host population following repeated rounds of mass drug administration and their impact on the transmission breakpoint

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (177) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin S. Collyer ◽  
Roy M. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Drug Administration ◽  
Mass Drug Administration ◽  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Drug Efficacy ◽  
Host Population ◽  
Stable Equilibria ◽  
Compliance To Treatment ◽  
Lower Transmission ◽  
Multiple Species ◽  
Key Aspects

The existence of multiple stable equilibria in models of parasitic helminth transmission was a ground-breaking discovery over 30 years ago. An implication of this discovery, that there is a level of infection below which transmission cannot self-sustain called the transmission breakpoint, has in part motivated the push towards the elimination of many human diseases caused by the multiple species of helminth worldwide. In the absence of vaccines, the predominant method in this push towards elimination is to repeatedly administer endemic populations with anthelmintic drugs, over several treatment rounds, in what has become to be known as mass drug administration (MDA). MDA will inevitably alter the distribution of parasite burdens among hosts from the baseline distribution, and significantly, the location of the transmission breakpoint is known to be dependent on the level of aggregation of this distribution—for a given mean worm burden, more highly aggregated distributions where fewer individuals harbour most of the burden, will have a lower transmission breakpoint. In this paper, we employ a probabilistic analysis of the changes to the distribution of burdens in a population undergoing MDA, and simple approximations, to determine how key aspects of the programmes (including compliance, drug efficacy and treatment coverage) affect the location of the transmission breakpoint. We find that individual compliance to treatment, which determines the number of times an individual participates in mass drug administration programmes, is key to the location of the breakpoint, indicating the vital importance to ensure that people are not routinely missed in these programmes.

scholarly journals Assessing the efficacy of antibiotic treatment for the creation of axenic earthworms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henny O Omosigho ◽  
Elmer Swart ◽  
Tom Sizmur ◽  
Dave J Spurgeon ◽  
Claus Svendsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antibiotic Treatment ◽  
Microbial Interactions ◽  
Ecological Studies ◽  
Associated Bacteria ◽  
Considerable Portion ◽  
Soil Ecosystems ◽  
Solid Agar ◽  
Host Health ◽  
Semi Solid ◽  
And Function

Earthworms are an integral part of soil ecosystems, especially for their role in soil functions such as organic matter (OM) decomposition and nutrient cycling. Earthworms and microorganisms are interdependent, and a considerable portion of the contribution earthworms make to influencing OM fate is through interactions with microorganisms. However, the importance of the earthworm-associated microbiome is not fully understood, because it is difficult to separate the direct influence of the earthworms from the indirect influence of their microbiome. Here, we evaluated an antibiotic-based procedure for producing axenic ecologically-contrasting earthworm species (E. fetida, L. terrestris, A. chlorotica) as the first step towards soil studies aimed at understanding the importance of the earthworm microbiome for host health and function. Individual earthworms were exposed to antibiotics: cycloheximide (150 μg ml-1), ampicillin (100 μg ml-1), ciprofloxacin (50 μg ml-1), nalidixic acid (μg ml-1), and gentamicin (μg ml-1) either singly or in a cocktail via culture (96 h) in a semi-solid agar carrier. Compared to the non-antibiotic treated control, the cocktail (for all three species) and ciprofloxacin (for E. fetida and A. chlorotica) treatments significantly reduced (P<0.05) culturable microbial abundance on nutrient agar and potato dextrose agar. The microbial counts were reduced to below detection (<50 CFU individual-1) for E. fetida and A. chlorotica receiving the cocktail. Illumina 16S rDNA amplicon sequence analysis of culturable L. terrestris -associated bacteria showed that antibiotic treatment influenced community composition revealing putative sensitive (Comomonas, Kosakonia and Sphingobacterium) and insensitive (Aeromonas, Pseudochrobactrum) taxa. Overall, we report a rapid, with minimal earthworm- handling, process of creating axenic E. fetida and A. chlorotica individuals or L. terrestris with a suppressed microbiome as a tool to be used in future ecological studies of earthworm microbial interactions affecting host health and function.

The mensuration of interfaces

1992 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 216-217
Author(s):  
W.M. Stobbs
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
50Th Anniversary ◽  
Numerical Data ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Dynamical Theory ◽  
Large Strains ◽  
Reasonable Approach ◽  
Lattice Resolution ◽  
Analogue To Digital ◽  
The Way

I do not have access to the abstracts of the first meeting of EMSA but at this, the 50th Anniversary meeting of the Electron Microscopy Society of America, I have an excuse to consider the historical origins of the approaches we take to the use of electron microscopy for the characterisation of materials. I have myself been actively involved in the use of TEM for the characterisation of heterogeneities for little more than half of that period. My own view is that it was between the 3rd International Meeting at London, and the 1956 Stockholm meeting, the first of the European series , that the foundations of the approaches we now take to the characterisation of a material using the TEM were laid down. (This was 10 years before I took dynamical theory to be etched in stone.) It was at the 1956 meeting that Menter showed lattice resolution images of sodium faujasite and Hirsch, Home and Whelan showed images of dislocations in the XlVth session on “metallography and other industrial applications”. I have always incidentally been delighted by the way the latter authors misinterpreted astonishingly clear thickness fringes in a beaten (”) foil of Al as being contrast due to “large strains”, an error which they corrected with admirable rapidity as the theory developed. At the London meeting the research described covered a broad range of approaches, including many that are only now being rediscovered as worth further effort: however such is the power of “the image” to persuade that the above two papers set trends which influence, perhaps too strongly, the approaches we take now. Menter was clear that the way the planes in his image tended to be curved was associated with the imaging conditions rather than with lattice strains, and yet it now seems to be common practice to assume that the dots in an “atomic resolution image” can faithfully represent the variations in atomic spacing at a localised defect. Even when the more reasonable approach is taken of matching the image details with a computed simulation for an assumed model, the non-uniqueness of the interpreted fit seems to be rather rarely appreciated. Hirsch et al., on the other hand, made a point of using their images to get numerical data on characteristics of the specimen they examined, such as its dislocation density, which would not be expected to be influenced by uncertainties in the contrast. Nonetheless the trends were set with microscope manufacturers producing higher and higher resolution microscopes, while the blind faith of the users in the image produced as being a near directly interpretable representation of reality seems to have increased rather than been generally questioned. But if we want to test structural models we need numbers and it is the analogue to digital conversion of the information in the image which is required.

The Added Value of Graphical Input and Display for Electron Lens Design

1990 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 190-191
Author(s):  
B. Lencova ◽  
G. Wisselink
Keyword(s):  
Flux Density ◽  
Numerical Data ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Lens Design ◽  
Step Size ◽  
Magnetic Lens ◽  
Flux Lines ◽  
Fine Mesh ◽  
Electron Lens ◽  
User Friendly

Recent progress in computer technology enables the calculation of lens fields and focal properties on commonly available computers such as IBM ATs. If we add to this the use of graphics, we greatly increase the applicability of design programs for electron lenses. Most programs for field computation are based on the finite element method (FEM). They are written in Fortran 77, so that they are easily transferred from PCs to larger machines.The design process has recently been made significantly more user friendly by adding input programs written in Turbo Pascal, which allows a flexible implementation of computer graphics. The input programs have not only menu driven input and modification of numerical data, but also graphics editing of the data. The input programs create files which are subsequently read by the Fortran programs. From the main menu of our magnetic lens design program, further options are chosen by using function keys or numbers. Some options (lens initialization and setting, fine mesh, current densities, etc.) open other menus where computation parameters can be set or numerical data can be entered with the help of a simple line editor. The "draw lens" option enables graphical editing of the mesh - see fig. I. The geometry of the electron lens is specified in terms of coordinates and indices of a coarse quadrilateral mesh. In this mesh, the fine mesh with smoothly changing step size is calculated by an automeshing procedure. The options shown in fig. 1 allow modification of the number of coarse mesh lines, change of coordinates of mesh points or lines, and specification of lens parts. Interactive and graphical modification of the fine mesh can be called from the fine mesh menu. Finally, the lens computation can be called. Our FEM program allows up to 8000 mesh points on an AT computer. Another menu allows the display of computed results stored in output files and graphical display of axial flux density, flux density in magnetic parts, and the flux lines in magnetic lenses - see fig. 2. A series of several lens excitations with user specified or default magnetization curves can be calculated and displayed in one session.

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