Sensory cutaneous papillae in the sea lamprey (Petromyzonmarinus L.) : I. Neuroanatomy and physiology

Molecules present in an animal's environment can indicate the presence of predators,food, or sexual partners and consequently, induce migratory, reproductive, foraging,or escape behaviors. Three sensory systems, the olfactory, gustatory, and solitarychemosensory cell (SCC) systems detect chemical stimuli in vertebrates. While agreat deal of research has focused on the olfactory and gustatory system over theyears, it is only recently that significant attention has been devoted to the SCC sys-tem. The SCCs are microvillous cells that were first discovered on the skin of fish,and later in amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. Lampreys also possess SCCs that areparticularly numerous on cutaneous papillae. However, little is known regarding theirprecise distribution, innervation, and function. Here, we show that sea lampreys(Petromyzon marinus L.) have cutaneous papillae located around the oral disk, nostril,gill pores, and on the dorsal fins and that SCCs are particularly numerous on thesepapillae. Tract-tracing experiments demonstrated that the oral and nasal papillae areinnervated by the trigeminal nerve, the gill pore papillae are innervated by branchialnerves, and the dorsal fin papillae are innervated by spinal nerves. We also character-ized the response profile of gill pore papillae to some chemicals and showed thattrout-derived chemicals, amino acids, and a bile acid produced potent responses.Together with a companion study (Suntres et al., Journal of Comparative Neurology,this issue), our results provide new insights on the function and evolution of the SCCsystem in vertebrates

Diversity and Functional Traits of Lichens in Ultramafic Areas: A Literature Based Worldwide Analysis Integrated by Field Data at the Regional Scale

While higher plant communities found on ultramafics are known to display peculiar characteristics, the distinguishability of any peculiarity in lichen communities is still a matter of contention. Other biotic or abiotic factors, rather than substrate chemistry, may contribute to differences in species composition reported for lichens on adjacent ultramafic and non-ultramafic areas. This work examines the lichen biota of ultramafics, at global and regional scales, with reference to species-specific functional traits. An updated world list of lichens on ultramafic substrates was analyzed to verify potential relationships between diversity and functional traits of lichens in different Köppen–Geiger climate zones. Moreover, a survey of diversity and functional traits in saxicolous communities on ultramafic and non-ultramafic substrates was conducted in Valle d’Aosta (North-West Italy) to verify whether a relationship can be detected between substrate and functional traits that cannot be explained by other environmental factors related to altitude. Analyses (unweighted pair group mean average clustering, canonical correspondence analysis, similarity-difference-replacement simplex approach) of global lichen diversity on ultramafic substrates (2314 reports of 881 taxa from 43 areas) displayed a zonal species distribution in different climate zones rather than an azonal distribution driven by the shared substrate. Accordingly, variations in the frequency of functional attributes reflected reported adaptations to the climate conditions of the different geographic areas. At the regional scale, higher similarity and lower species replacement were detected at each altitude, independent from the substrate, suggesting that altitude-related climate factors prevail over putative substrate–factors in driving community assemblages. In conclusion, data do not reveal peculiarities in lichen diversity or the frequency of functional traits in ultramafic areas

Ultramafic vegetation and soils in the circumboreal region of the Northern Hemisphere

The paper summarizes literature on climate, soil chemistry, vegetation and metal accumulation by plants found on ultramafic substrata in the circumboreal zone (sensu Takhtajan, Floristic regions of the world, 1986) of the Northern Hemisphere. We present a list of 50 endemic species and 18 ecotypes obligate to ultramafic soils from the circumboreal region of Holarctic, as well as 30 and 2 species of Ni and Zn hyperaccumulators, respectively. The number of both endemics and hyperaccumulators are markedly lower compared to that of the Mediterranean and tropical regions. The diversity of plant communities on ultramafics soils of the circumboral region is also described. The underlying causes for the differences of ultramafic flora between arctic, cold, cool temperate and Mediterranean and tropical regions are also discussed. © 2018, The Ecological Society of Japan

Analysis of Biomedical Signals Using Differential Geometry Invariants

Accelerometers embedded in the medical bed were used to examine the human cardiovascular system. N signals acquired from those sensors were described as 1D manifold and analysed using classical and affine differential geometry invariants. Experiments using elastic tube and two accelerometers were done to model human aorta and to prove the relation presented in the paper of Pinheiro et al