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Correlations between ultrastructural features and contraction rates in rotiferan muscle. I. Preliminary observations on longitudinal retractor muscles in Trichocerca rattus.

The Rotifer Trichocerca rattus has striated longitudinal retractor muscles. These muscles can be divided into two categories: 1. The central and ventral retractor muscles which, after fixation, are found in a supercontracted state: they probably contract very quickly. 2. The lateral retractor muscles which are in a relaxed state after fixation. However, if the animal is mechanically stimulated before fixation, these are also fixed in a contracted state: so, normally, these muscles probably contract more slowly than the first category. In the relaxed state, thin myofilaments of the lateral retractor muscles are folded at the I band level; this a consequence of their compression provoked by the contraction of central and ventral retractor muscles. In muscles of the first type, the thick myofilaments are shorter (less than 2 mu) than in the second type (2.5 mu).

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The hard parts (trophi) of the rotifer mastax do contain chitin: evidence from studies on Brachionus plicatilis.

The jaws (trophi) of the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis are soluble in strong acids but are resistant to long treatments by strong alkali. They show the same buoyant density as chitin and also as the chitin-containing layers of rotifer egg-shells. The presence of chitin in these structures was confirmed using the following techniques: chitosan-tests, thin-layer chromatography of trophi-hydrolysates which revealed glucosamine, by dissolving trophi with chitinase and electron microscopic WGA/gold-labelling. The content of chitin in the trophi was estimated by two different methods to be approx. 64% (50-75%).

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Histofluorescent labelling of catecholaminergic structures in rotifers (Aschelminthes). II. Males of Brachionus plicatilis and structures from sectioned females.

1. Catecholaminergic structures in the male Brachionus plicatilis were investigated, using aqueous dansylpropranolol as fluorescent label of neurotransmitter receptors. 2. All major organs of the male are innervated by catecholaminergic systems, that may also be involved in the regulation of copulatory behavior. 3. Cryostat-sectioned preparations of the female B. plicatilis were also investigated. They provided additional information to findings on whole animals reported in our previous paper (Keshmirian and Nogrady 1987 a).

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Histofluorescent labelling of catecholaminergic structures in rotifers (Aschelminthes) in whole animals.

1. Catecholaminergic neuronal structures were investigated in the rotifers Brachionus plicatilis, Asplanchna priodonta and Asplanchna herricki, using three different aqueous histofluorescent methods. 2. The adrenergic receptors were labelled using the dansyl analog of propranolol, a beta-adrenergic blocker. Catecholamine neurotransmitters were visualized by derivatizing with glyoxylic acid and formaldehyde respectively. 3. Although all three methods lead to similar results, dansyl-propranolol gave the most rapid and strong fluorescence. 4. The results reveal a complex and highly developed catecholaminergic neuronal system in all adult organs and sensory structures. While developed embryos in the egg show strong fluorescence, immature eggs do not.

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Sensitized photooxygenation of the fungicide furalaxyl.

BACKGROUND: The photolysis of pesticides is of high current interest since light is one of the most important abiotic factors which are responsible for the environmental fate of these substances and may induce their conversion into noxious products. The action of light can also be mediated by oxygen and synthetic or naturally occurring substances which act as sensitizers. Our objective in this study was to investigate the photochemical behaviour of the systemic fungicide furalaxyl in the presence of oxygen and various sensitizers, and to compare the toxicity of the main photoproduct(s) to that of the parent compound. Previous reports on the direct photolysis of the pesticide demonstrated a very slow degradation and the only identified photoproducts were N-2,6-xylyl-D,L-alaninare and 2,6-dimethylaniline. METHODS: Solutions of furalaxyl in CH3CN were photooxygenate using a 500W high-pressure mercury lamp (through a Pyrex glass filter, lambda>300 nm) or a 650W halogen lamp or sunlight and the proper sensitizer. When sunlight was used, aqueous solutions were employed. The photodegradation was checked by NMR and/or GC-MS. The photoproducts were spectroscopically evidenced and, when possible, isolated chromatographically. Acute toxicity tests were performed on the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus, the crustacean cladoceran Daphnia magna and the anostracan Thamnocephalus platyurus, while chronic toxicity tests (sublethal endpoints) comprised a producer, the alga Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata and the crustacean Ceriodaphnia dubia, as a consumer. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: In the presence of both oxygen and sensitizer, furalaxyl underwent rapid photochemical transformations mainly to N-disubstituted formamide, maleic anhydride and a 2(5H)-furanone derivative. The formation of these products was rationalized in terms of a furan endoperoxide intermediate derived from the reaction of furalaxyl with active dioxygenated species (singlet oxygen, superoxide anion or ground state oxygen). The 2(5H)-furanone exhibited a higher toxicity than the parent compound. CONCLUSION: This work reports the first data on the photosensitized oxygenation of furalaxyl with evidence of the high tendency of the pesticide to undergo photodegradation under these conditions leading, among other things, to a 2(5H)-furanone, which is more toxic than the starting furalaxyl towards aquatic organisms. RECOMMENDATIONS AND OUTLOOK: Investigation highlights that the photolytic fate of a pesticide, although quite stable to direct photoreaction due to its low absorption of solar radiation at ground level, can be significantly influenced in the environment by the presence of substances with energy or electron-transfer properties as natural dyes, e.g. chlorophyll, or synthetic pollutants, e.g. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).

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Rotifers colonising sediments with shallow gas hydrates.

Rotifers, one of the smallest metazoans, are only seldom found in marine environments. Surprisingly, we discovered high abundances of at least two new species of rotifers settling in anoxic and highly sulphidic sediments associated with shallow gas hydrates (GH) at the southern crest of Hydrate Ridge off Oregon, NE Pacific, in a water depth of about 780 m. At basins adjacent to Hydrate Ridge, 1,285-2,304 m deep, we found rotifers co-occurring with the sulphide-oxidising bacteria Thioploca sp.

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Ice shelf microbial ecosystems in the high arctic and implications for life on snowball earth.

The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf (83 degrees N, 74 degrees W) is the largest remaining section of thick (> 10 m) land-fast sea ice along the northern coastline of Ellesmere Island, Canada. Extensive meltwater lakes and streams occur on the surface of the ice and are colonized by photosynthetic microbial mat communities. This High Arctic cryo-ecosystem is similar in several of its physical, biological and geochemical features to the McMurdo Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The ice-mats in both polar regions are dominated by filamentous cyanobacteria but also contain diatoms, chlorophytes, flagellates, ciliates, nematodes, tardigrades and rotifers. The luxuriant Ward Hunt consortia also contain high concentrations (10(7)-10(8) cm-2) of viruses and heterotrophic bacteria. During periods of extensive ice cover, such as glaciations during the Proterozoic, cryotolerant mats of the type now found in these polar ice shelf ecosystems would have provided refugia for the survival, growth and evolution of a variety of organisms, including multicellular eukaryotes.

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