Mesozoan parasites of Octopus vulgaris, Lam from Florida.
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S-crystallin is a major lens protein present in the octopus and squid of Cephalopods. To facilitate the cloning of the protein, cDNA was constructed from the poly(A)+RNA of octopus lenses, and amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was carried out with two primers designed according to the 5'- and 3'-coding regions of S-crystallin gene. Sequencing two of 15 positive clones obtained shows 37-44% similarity in nucleotide and 23-30% similarity in amino acid sequences as compared with mammalian glutathione S-transferases (GST), revealing that S-crystallins exist as a multigene family and probably derived from GST by gene duplication and subsequent mutational base replacements.
Evaluation of damages by parasites in teleosts, even if underextimated in the past, is today one of the most used methods to understand the effective impact of a parasite on a certain ichtyc species. The damage caused by a parasite on the host could be classified into direct, with tissue changes, or indirect, with a decrease of the productive performances. Based on this, a preliminary difference could be traced distinguishing parasites that show a coevolution with their host species, characterized by a low damage, and those parasites that can occasionally infect new host species, showing a high degree of damage. In consideration of the damage, parasites can have different actions on the host: subtractive, irritative, mechanical, traumatic, toxic, dismetabolic, antigenic and foretic. Those parasites able to cause tissue changes must be furtherly classified considering the type of inflammation they evoke on tissues: ulcerous, catarral, haemorrhagic, necrotic and granulomatous. Some parasites are encysted in tissues without any host reaction. The fish response against parasite can be inflammatory, the most frequent, but also hyperplastic, metaplastic, neoplastic and immunitary. The paper goes through different tissue changes due to the main parasites of Mediterranean teleosts.
The eye lens crystallins of the octopus Octopus dofleini were identified by sequencing abundant proteins and cDNAs. As in squid, the octopus crystallins have subunit molecular masses of 25-30 kDa, are related to mammalian glutathione S-transferases (GST), and are encoded in at least six genes. The coding regions and deduced amino acid sequences of four octopus lens cDNAs are 75-80% identical, while their non-coding regions are entirely different. Deduced amino acid sequences show 52-57% similarity with squid GST-like crystallins, but only 20-25% similarity with mammalian GST. These data suggest that the octopus and squid lens GST-like crystallin gene families expanded after divergence of these species. Northern blot hybridization indicated that the four octopus GST-like crystallin genes examined are lens-specific. Lens extracts showed about 40 times less GST activity using 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene as substrate than liver extracts of the octopus, indicating that the major GST-like crystallins are specialized for a lens structural role. A prominent 59-kDa crystallin polypeptide, previously observed in octopus but not squid and called omega-crystallin (Chiou, S.-H. (1988) FEBS Lett. 241, 261-264), has been identified as an aldehyde dehydrogenase. Since cytoplasmic aldehyde dehydrogenase is a major protein in elephant shrew lenses (eta-crystallin; Wistow, G., and Kim, H. (1991) J. Mol. Evol. 32, 262-269) the octopus aldehyde dehydrogenase crystallin provides the first example of a similar enzyme-crystallin in vertebrates and invertebrates. The use of detoxification stress proteins (GST and aldehyde dehydrogenase) as cephalopod crystallins indicates a common strategy for recruitment of enzyme-crystallins during the convergent evolution of vertebrate and invertebrate lenses. For historical reasons we propose that the octopus GST-like crystallins, like those of the squid, are called S-crystallins.
The sequence of discoveries that has followed the investigation of this small yellow spot shows the value of studies begun out of "mere curiosity". The spot occurs on the stellate ganglion of octopods. It proved to be an enclosed sac, perhaps a gland. The search for it in squids and cuttlefishes led to the discovery of the giant nerve fibres. At first they were thought to be veins but we soon showed that they were nerve fibres concerned with jet propulsion. Their action potentials, membranes and synapses have been used for thousand of studies, including those that led to the Hodkin Huxley equations. They have been the basis of much of modern neuroscience. The epistellar body itself proved not to be a gland but a photoreceptor. Comparable photosensitive vesicles are especially large in the heads of deep-sea squids. In the mesopelagic ones they allow the squid to conceal itself by counterillumination, matching its own light output to the light coming from above. In bathypelagic squids the vesicles are enormous and probably keep the animals in the dark, where they breed. The function of the epistellar body, lying within the mantle of octopods is still unknown. It may act in the transparent larval stage to trigger the ejection of luminous plankton, which would be a hazard.
A complex connective tissue framework exists in mammalian hearts that surrounds and interconnects individual myocytes and fascicles of cells. Recent evidence suggests that this connective tissue plays a role in maintaining shape, modulating contractile forces, and mediating elastic recoil during cavity filling and contraction. In order to analyze the involvement of connective tissue in pump contraction and recoil, we examined silver impregnated connective tissue in rat hearts which spontaneously jet through fluid ex vivo by contracting their cavities forcefully and then sucking fluid for the next cycle, and compared them to frog hearts which beat actively under the same conditions, but do not demonstrate jet propulsion. A further analysis was carried out in unrelated but analogous models: the squid and octopus. The former jets rapidly through the ocean, while the latter moves sinuously along the seabed. We observed highly interconnected myocytes in the rat heart, whereas frog myocytes are individually wrapped by connective tissue but are not interconnected. The squid mantle muscle is surrounded by a complex connective tissue grid that is tethered to each muscle cell, whereas the octopus mantle muscle cells are surrounded by connective tissue but are not tethered. These observations suggest that myocyte connective tissue tethering may be necessary for muscle cavities to generate forceful and coordinated contractions sufficient for rapid ejection and suction of fluid.
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The requirement of live marine prey for cephalopod mariculture has restricted its practicality for inland research laboratories, commercial enterprises and home aquarists. We evaluated acceptability and resultant growth on: (a) frozen marine shrimps, (b) live and frozen marine polychaete worms, (c) live and frozen marine crabs, (d) frozen marine fishes, (e) live adult brine shrimp, (f) live freshwater fish and (g) live freshwater crayfish. The diets were presented for periods of 2 to 11 weeks to octopuses, cuttlefishes or squids and in most trials the results were compared to animals fed control diets of live marine shrimps, crabs or fish. Overall, frozen marine shrimp proved to be the best alternative diet tested. Adult Octopus maya on frozen marine shrimp diets grew as well as those on control diets at 2.8% body weight per day (%/d) compared to 2.0%/d on live freshwater crayfish, 1.4%/d on live marine polychaete worms and 0.8%/d on live freshwater fish (Tilapia sp.). Juvenile Octopus maya and Octopus bimaculoides also grew comparably to controls when fed frozen marine shrimps; growth rates ranged from near 3.0%/d at 3 months of age to nearly 2.5%/d at 6 months of age. Thus, these alternatives are acceptable as the octopuses end their exponential growth phase at an age of 3 - 5 months. Attempts to rear O. maya hatchlings and juveniles (up to 1 month of age) on dead foods resulted in high mortality and slow or negative growth. No live or dead alternative diet has been found yet that will promote good growth and survival in hatchling octopuses. Hatchling F3 generation Sepia officinalis (the European cuttlefish) were reared for 6 weeks exclusively on adult brine shrimp (Artemia salina).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The deoxy form of hemocyanins and tyrosinases from certain species displays a weak low-energy luminescence when solutions of the protein are irradiated with light at approximately 290 nm. The emission most likely results from a copper-to-imidazole charge transfer state as shown by studies with a synthetic copper(I) complex having three imidazole ligands.
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Five species of Octopus were cultured in pilot, large-scale 2,600 liter circulating seawater systems. Improvements in system design, water management and culture methodology were described. These five species all produced large eggs and correspondingly large hatchlings that had no planktonic or larval stage and thus were easier to culture. Octopuses grew well only when fed live marine crustaceans, fishes and other molluscs. Growth occurred as a 4-7% increase in body weight per day during the early exponential growth phase and 2-4% during the latter 1/2 to 3/4 of the life cycle, which ranged from 6-15 months depending upon species. All species reproduced in captivity. Survival was 70-80% when octopuses were reared in individual containers, but in group culture survival dropped to as low as 40% by the adult stage. Causes of mortality were species-specific and included hatchling abnormalities, escapes, aggression, cannibalism, disease, senescence and laboratory accidents. Octopus bimaculoides showed superior qualities for laboratory culture. The future potential of providing American scientists with laboratory-cultured octopuses was discussed along with their uses in biomedical research.
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