Food consumption and growth of marine mammals = Voedselopname en groei van zeezoogdieren

This thesis contains 35 studies on food consumption and growth of captive marine marinmals. Seventeen studies concern food intake and growth records of 9 odontocete species (toothed whales), varying in body weight from 30 to 4500 kg: the killer whale, beluga, false killer whale, Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, Amazon river dolphin, common dolphin, dusky dolphin, Commerson's dolphin, and the harbour porpoise (chapter 2). The other eighteen studies concern 8 pinniped species (true seals, sea lions, and walruses), in which the adult male body weight varied between 110 and 1400 kg, and adult female weight between 70 and 800 kg: the Southern elephant seal, grey seal, harbour seal, Steller sea lion, South American sea lion, California sea lion, South African fur seal, and Pacific walrus (chapters 3,4, and 5). In each study, the results were compared to available information on food consumption and growth of wild and captive conspecifics, and were considered with respect to the life histories of the species.</p

tuf Gene dosage effects on the intracellular concentration of EF-TuB

In this paper we have studied the effect of raising the intracellular EF‐Tu concentration on the expression of tufB. To this aim cells were transformed with multicopy plasmids carrying either tufA or tufB. The intracellular EF‐Tu concentrations were determined by the specific immunoelectrophoresis assay described in the preceding paper in this journal. We have cloned the tufA gene in a plasmid, containing the powerful major leftward promoter (Pl) of phage λ Transcription from Pl can be repressed at low temperature by a temperature‐sensitive repressor and acitvated by heat induction. Cloning occurred in two orientations in a single EcoRI site about 150 base pairs downstream of Pl. Cells carrying either plasmid were shown to contain an almost doubled amount of EF‐Tu at temperatures from 28°C to 37°C. This indicates that transcription of tufA can proceed from a possible binding site for RNA polymerase on these cloned fragments. The EF‐Tu level was further increased to about 30% of total cellular protein after a temperature shift from 37°C to 43°C. The multicopy plasmid pTuB1 described by Miyajimaet al. [FEBS Lett. 102, 207–210 (1979)] and a derivative (pTuBo, compare preceding paper in this journal) were used to study the expression of both chromosomal and plasmid‐borne tufB. Transformation with either plasmid raised the intracellular EF‐Tu concentration by 30–60% depending on the nutritional conditions. Suppression of tufB expression was observed when the intracellular level of EF‐Tu increased after transformation with all plasmids mentioned above. The results are in accord with the concept that EF‐Tu acts as an autogenous feedback inhibitor involved in the regulation of tufB.Microbial Biotechnolog

Novel Loci for Adiponectin Levels and Their Influence on Type 2 Diabetes and Metabolic Traits : A Multi-Ethnic Meta-Analysis of 45,891 Individuals

J. Kaprio, S. Ripatti ja M.-L. Lokki työryhmien jäseniä.Peer reviewe

Respiratory arrhythmia in the hearts of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena)

The heart rates of 3 Harbour porpoises (recorded for 26 days) showed individual variation. Electrocardiograms of two of these animals, made while they were on land, showed respiratory arrhythmia. The heart rate dropped when the animals were returned to the water, but the arrhythmia remained