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PubMed2006

Living males of the 'ancient asexual' Darwinulidae (Ostracoda: Crustacea).

Three living male darwinulid ostracods of a new species of the genus Vestalenula have been found in Yakushima, Japan. This is the first report of living darwinulid males for over 100 years and their morphology casts doubt on the two previous records from the late 1800' s. The presence of male darwinulids also calls into question the hypothesis that the family Darwinulidae is an exclusively ancient asexual group, reproducing without sex for over 200 million years (Myr). Male carapaces are of similar size and shape to A-1 juvenile females of the same species, suggesting that males may have been dismissed as A-1 juveniles in other living and fossil species. The antennae and fifth limbs are sexually dimorphic: the male antennae have six segments compared with five in the female and a series of putative chemical receptors originating at the extra segment boundary, while the male fifth limbs have well-developed grasping hooks, as in males of many ostracod groups. The lack of Zenker's Organ and of complex internal structures within the hemipenis contradicts previous hypotheses of the phylogenetic position of darwinulids.

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PubMed1986

A model for the architecture of the hemocyanin from the arthropod Squilla mantis (Crustacea, Stomatopoda).

Squilla mantis hemocyanin is composed of two hexameric subunits but has electron microscopic profiles different from other bis-hexameric hemocyanins, e.g. Astacus and Homarus. We distinguished three different electron microscopic profiles of S. mantis hemocyanin: two sideviews and a topview. These profiles were studied using computer image alignment and correspondence analysis [Van Heel, M. and Frank, J. (1981) Ultramicroscopy 6, 187 - 194]. With the results of this analysis we were able to build a three-dimensional model for the quaternary structure of this hemocyanin. In this model the two hexamers are stacked in such a way that their hexagonal surfaces overlap to about 60% of their width. In the overlap area four subunits are arranged in two different interhexameric pairs, each forming a bridging area between the two hexamers.

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PubMedDate not supplied

Abd-B expression in Porcellio scaber Latreille, 1804 (Isopoda: Crustacea): conserved pattern versus novel roles in development and evolution.

The Hox genes are intimately involved in patterning the animal body during development and are considered to have had a pivotal role in the evolution of different body plans among the metazoans. From this perspective, crustaceans, a group that has evolved an extreme diversity of body structures, represent a choice group in which to study the evolution of these genes and their expression. The expression of one of these genes, Abdominal-B (Abd-B), has only been studied in two distantly related crustaceans, Artemia and Sacculina, where it shows dissimilar patterns, highly differentiated from the one described in other arthropods. Moreover, we have no information for the Malacostraca. Thus, we cloned the gene Abd-B and followed its expression through development by in situ hybridization in the isopod Porcellio scaber. We found a highly dynamic expression pattern of PsAbd-B during embryonic development. In early stages, it is expressed in the posterior-most part of the germ band, in a domain common to several arthropods studied to date, and later it is expressed in the developing limb buds of the pleon and still later in the endopodites of the third to fifth pleopodites. This raises the interesting possibility of the involvement of this gene in the later respiratory specialization of these appendages. In association with the above expression domain, Abd-B appears to be expressed in later stages also in the ventral ectoderm, raising the further suggestion of its possible involvement in patterning the developing nervous system. Moreover, we show that the first pleopod and the endopodite of the second pleopod, whereas present as limb buds in early embryonic stages, are later reduced and actually absent in the first postembryonic stage, although they reappear again in adults. These appendages thus represent an example of Lazarus appendages. Our data show strong plasticity in the use of a key developmental gene and point out the necessity of further research that may end with a revision of the current understanding of its role in animal evolution.

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PubMed1993

Ca2+ and Sr2+ activation properties of skinned muscle fibres with different regulatory systems from crustacea and rat.

1. The contractile activation properties of long- (sarcomere length (SL) > 6 microns) and short- (SL < 4 microns) sarcomere fibres from the claw muscle of the yabby (freshwater crustacean, Cherax destructor) and the fast- and slow-twitch fibres from the rat have been investigated using single skinned muscle fibres activated in solutions containing Ca2+ or Sr2+ or both Ca2+ and Sr2+. 2. Sr2+ could not fully activate the contractile apparatus of either the long- or the short-sarcomere yabby preparations and the force-pSr curves for both fibre types were biphasic in shape. 3. The long- and short-sarcomere fibres from the yabby differed in their Ca(2+)- and Sr(2+)-activation properties. Thus the long-sarcomere fibres required a significantly lower [Ca2+] to produce 10% maximum force, had Ca(2+)-activation curves which were significantly shallower, and had a significantly higher ratio between maximum Sr(2+)- and maximum Ca(2+)-activated force than the short-sarcomere fibres. 4. Simultaneous activation with Ca2+ and Sr2+ showed a synergistic effect in the rat muscle fibres where Sr2+ could fully replace Ca2+ in activation. In contrast the results with the long- and short-sarcomere fibres from the yabby showed that in some functional states Sr2+ binds but cannot (or can only partially) activate the regulatory system while in others Sr2+ can fully replace Ca2+ in activating contraction. 5. The synergistic effect between Sr2+ and Ca2+ in mammalian muscle could be quantitatively explained if all regulatory sites involved in contractile activation have a similar value for the ratio between their affinity for Ca2+ and Sr2+. 6. Three distinguishable functional states (based on the fibre's ability to be activated by Sr2+ and Ca2+) were identified in the long-sarcomere fibres from the yabby: one where both Ca2+ and Sr2+ were able to activate contraction and had a relatively high sensitivity to Sr2+; one where both Ca2+ and Sr2+ were able to activate contraction but where the sensitivity to Sr2+ was lower and was more sensitive to a decrease in ionic strength; and one where Sr2+ binding to the regulatory system could not activate contraction. Equivalent states of the three described for the long-sarcomere fibres were also found in the short-sarcomere preparations. However, the short-sarcomere fibres had, in addition, a fourth state which was characterized by the ability of Sr2+ to activate contraction at reduced ionic strength but not at standard ionic strength.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

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