Atrophacanthus danae Fraser Brunner and Chaetodon jayakari Norman, new records of fishes from the Arabian sea off the south-west coast of India

The material dealt with in this report consists of one specimen each of Atrophacanthus danae Fraser Brunner (1950) and Chaetodon jayakari Norman (1939) caught in bottom trawl off the south-west coast of India, during November 1965, by R. V. VARUNA of the Indo-Norwegian Fisheries Project, Cochi

Food of some Demersal fishes from the trawl Grounds off Cochin

The food habits of seven commonly caught demersal fishes from the Cochin region, namely, Platycepha'us maculipinna, Pseudosciaena sina, Otolithus argenteus, Lactarius lactarius, Saurida tiimbil, Trichiurus tepturus and Nemipterus faponicus have been studied during the period from February 1965 to October 1967. It is seer, that these fishes could be grouped into three categories on the basis of their food preferences. One group consisting of L. lactarius, T. lepturus and S.tumbilh largely piscivorous. The second category feeds on a variety of crustaceans and also fish. This includes P. maculipinna, P. sina and O. argenteus. The third category represented by the thread-fin bream A'. Japonicus consumes small crustaceans dominated by amphipods. Polychaetes and echiuroids form a significant proportion of the food of these fishes. Smaller commercial penaeid prawns like Parapenaeopsis stylifera and Metapenaeus dobsoni were eaten liy majority of the species studied. They were found in significant quantities in the focd of O. argenteus and to a lesser extent in P. sina, P. maculipinna and T. lepturus

Exploratory trawl fishing and ground fish resources along the Kerala coast and adjacent waters

The paper deals with exploratory fishing operations mainly trawling, conducted along Kerj^a Coast and adjacent waters since 1908. Early operations prior to 1950 demonstrated tlie occurrence of rich grounds for percoid fishes in the Cape Comorin area and good hand-line fkhiiig grounds off South Kerala Coast. Bull trawling in the Cannanore-Cape Comorin region by the vessels of the Deep Sea Fishing, Station of the Government of India showed that elasmobranchs and miscellaneous fish comprising small sciaenids, lizard fishes, flatheads, etc., were common for the area with a dominant catfish element in the Cannanoi«- Calicut sector, perch element south of AUeppey including Cape Comorin grounds and a transitional middle sector having a few catfishes and perches. Inshore otter trawl operations with medium-sized boats were increasingly carried out by the lndo>.Norwegian Project, Deep Sea Fishing Station and private agencies mainly centred around Coehin during; the last decade. Deep Sea Fishing Station operations in the region revealed a composition of about SO % miscellaaeous fish, 20-35% prawns, 8-14% Nemipterus japonicus, 6-14% elasmobranchs and 1-3% Laeiarius faciariiu. These operations showed the area between Calicut and Alleppey to be more productive, those off river and bar mouths yielding good quantity of prawns. The catch rate of prawns and fish increased steadily around Cochin from 1957 to 1961 and since then showed a slight decline. The picture is indicative of excessive fishing pressure over a limited area. This points to the necessity for even dispersal of fishing effort. Indo-Norwegian Project hand-line fishing operations provided considerable information regarding the 'Kalava' (Epinephelus spp.) resources of the rocky grounds on the continental shelf usually lying in 70-110 m depth zone off Kerala Coast. The occurrence of a variety of deep sea prawns, densely shoaling bathypelagic fishes like Cubiceps uatalensis, Chlorophthatmus spp., Antigonia spp., mid-water concentrations of balistids etc. have been found out along the Kerala Coast mainly by the fishing operations of the Indo-Norwegian Project. These as well as the "Kalava" resources could be better exploited with increased effort

Hormone trafficking. A case study of growth regulator dynamics

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74950/1/j.1399-3054.1993.tb01811.x.pd

Isolation of a wide range of minerals from a thermally treated plant: Equisetum arvense, a Mare’s tale

Silica is the second most abundant biomineral being exceeded in nature only by biogenic CaCO3. Many land plants (such as rice, cereals, cucumber, etc.) deposit silica in significant amounts to reinforce their tissues and as a systematic response to pathogen attack. One of the most ancient species of living vascular plants, Equisetum arvense is also able to take up and accumulate silica in all parts of the plant. Numerous methods have been developed for elimination of the organic material and/or metal ions present in plant material to isolate biogenic silica. However, depending on the chemical and/or physical treatment applied to branch or stem from Equisetum arvense; other mineral forms such glass-type materials (i.e. CaSiO3), salts (i.e. KCl) or luminescent materials can also be isolated from the plant material. In the current contribution, we show the chemical and/or thermal routes that lead to the formation of a number of different mineral types in addition to biogenic silica

The Influence of L-Carnitine on Oxidative Modification of LDL In Vitro

Owing to their structure and function, low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) are particularly susceptible to the oxidative modifications. To prevent against oxidative modification of LDL, L-carnitine, with endogenous small water-soluble quaternary amine possessing antioxidative properties, was used. The aim of this paper was to prove the in vitro influence of L-carnitine on the degree of oxidative modification of the lipid part (estimated by conjugated dienes, lipid hydroperoxides, and malondialdehyde levels) and the protein part (estimated by dityrosine and tryptophan levels) of LDL native and oxidized by cooper ions. The level of lipophylic LDL antioxidant—α-tocopherol was also measured

Genotype-Specific Differences between Mouse CNS Stem Cell Lines Expressing Frontotemporal Dementia Mutant or Wild Type Human Tau

Stem cell (SC) lines that capture the genetics of disease susceptibility provide new research tools. To assess the utility of mouse central nervous system (CNS) SC-containing neurosphere cultures for studying heritable neurodegenerative disease, we compared neurosphere cultures from transgenic mice that express human tau with the P301L familial frontotemporal dementia (FTD) mutation, rTg(tauP301L)4510, with those expressing comparable levels of wild type human tau, rTg(tauwt)21221. rTg(tauP301L)4510 mice express the human tauP301L variant in their forebrains and display cellular, histological, biochemical and behavioral abnormalities similar to those in human FTD, including age-dependent differences in tau phosphorylation that distinguish them from rTg(tauwt)21221 mice. We compared FTD-hallmark tau phosphorylation in neurospheres from rTg(tauP301L)4510 mice and from rTg(tauwt)21221 mice. The tau genotype-specific phosphorylation patterns in neurospheres mimicked those seen in mice, validating use of neurosphere cultures as models for studying tau phosphorylation. Genotype-specific tau phosphorylation was observed in 35 independent cell lines from individual fetuses; tau in rTg(tauP301L)4510 cultures was hypophosphorylated in comparison with rTg(tauwt)21221 as was seen in young adult mice. In addition, there were fewer human tau-expressing cells in rTg(tauP301L)4510 than in rTg(tauwt)21221 cultures. Following differentiation, neuronal filopodia-spine density was slightly greater in rTg(tauP301L)4510 than rTg(tauwt)21221 and control cultures. Together with the recapitulation of genotype-specific phosphorylation patterns, the observation that neurosphere lines maintained their cell line-specific-differences and retained SC characteristics over several passages supports the utility of SC cultures as surrogates for analysis of cellular disease mechanisms

Co-limitation towards lower latitudes shapes global forest diversity gradients

The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is one of the most recognized global patterns of species richness exhibited across a wide range of taxa. Numerous hypotheses have been proposed in the past two centuries to explain LDG, but rigorous tests of the drivers of LDGs have been limited by a lack of high-quality global species richness data. Here we produce a high-resolution (0.025° × 0.025°) map of local tree species richness using a global forest inventory database with individual tree information and local biophysical characteristics from ~1.3 million sample plots. We then quantify drivers of local tree species richness patterns across latitudes. Generally, annual mean temperature was a dominant predictor of tree species richness, which is most consistent with the metabolic theory of biodiversity (MTB). However, MTB underestimated LDG in the tropics, where high species richness was also moderated by topographic, soil and anthropogenic factors operating at local scales. Given that local landscape variables operate synergistically with bioclimatic factors in shaping the global LDG pattern, we suggest that MTB be extended to account for co-limitation by subordinate drivers

The number of tree species on Earth

One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknown. Here, based on global ground-sourced data, we estimate the total tree species richness at global, continental, and biome levels. Our results indicate that there are ∼73,000 tree species globally, among which ∼9,000 tree species are yet to be discovered. Roughly 40% of undiscovered tree species are in South America. Moreover, almost one-third of all tree species to be discovered may be rare, with very low populations and limited spatial distribution (likely in remote tropical lowlands and mountains). These findings highlight the vulnerability of global forest biodiversity to anthropogenic changes in land use and climate, which disproportionately threaten rare species and thus, global tree richness