Impact of rise in seawater temperature on the spawning of threadfin Breams

Fish have strong temperature preferences to spawning. Several species of marine fish are known to spawn only at favorable water temperature that is known to trigger the process of spawning activities. The annually recurring events of life-cycle such as timing of spawning can provide particularly sensitive indicators of changes in climatic change. Many evidences of phenological changes are now available for terrestrial organisms. There is now ample evidence of the effects of climatic change on various biota over the last decades, but the literature on the effects of climate on phenological aspects in marine ecosystems is meager

Status of Marine Mammal Research and Conservation in lndia

In India, earl~ere search on marine mammals was restricted mostly to opportunistic collection of information on strandings and beach-cast specimens. Organised research by government and non-government organisations on these charismatic and vulnerable/endangered animals was initiated approximately 15 years ago. In the last 15 years, data on sightings, species inventory, abundance estimates, DNA sequences and fisheries interaction have been collected. These researches have indicated the need for future enhanced research on these sentinel megafauna of the oceans. At present, all species of marine mammals in the Indian seas are placed under Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Capture, use and trade of marine mammals are punishable under the Act. However, marine mammal - fisheries interaction is a major cause for concer

Fishery - Related Mortality of Sea Turtles in India: An Overview

Coastal communities have exploited sea turtles for centuries. In the 1950s, organised fisheries were developed to capture turtles in many parts of the world; sea turtles were considered an important exploitable fishery resource due to their high commercial value. Turtle meat and eggs were seell as a basic protein source for coastal populations. In India, Jacob (1973) highlighted the potential of sea turtle resources. Organised trade in turtle products existed prior to the eighties (Dattatri 1984, Rajagopalan 1984, 2000). It is estimated that 50,000-80,000 adult olive ridleys were captured off the Gahirmatha coast every nesting season up to 1981-82 (Das 1985). In September 1977. the five species of sea turtles that occur in Indian waters were included in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. As a consequence of the implementation of regulatory measures, organised capture and trade decreased, though illegal trade persisted till the mid-1980s. While the threat from targeted capture and trade decreased, incidental capture of sea turtles in gear operated for other species of fish and shellfish has become more significant over the years. The interaction of sea turtles with fisheries has become an area of critical importance in many parts of the world (Gerosa and Casale 1999, Vivekanandan 2002). In India tOO, incidental capture in gill nets and trawls has become a serious threat to sea turtle populations (Rajagopalan et a11996, 2001, Pandav and Choudhury 1999, Wright and Mohanty 2002). Due to an increase in the number of fishing units, and also improvement in technology, incidental bycatch has increased in recent years to the extent that it is the most significant cause of sea turtle mortality in Indian waters

Vulnerability of Corals to Seawater Warming

Coral reefs are the most diverse marine habitat, which support an estimated 1 million species globally. They are highly sensitive to climatic influences and are among the most sensitive of all ecosystems to temperature changes, exhibiting the phenomenon known as coral bleaching when stressed by higher than normal sea temperatures. Reef-building corals are highly dependent on a symbiotic relationship with microscopic algae (type of dinoflagellate known as zooxanthellae), which live within the coral tissues

RNase HI Is Essential for Survival of Mycobacterium smegmatis

RNases H are involved in the removal of RNA from RNA/DNA hybrids. Type I RNases H are thought to recognize and cleave the RNA/DNA duplex when at least four ribonucleotides are present. Here we investigated the importance of RNase H type I encoding genes for model organism Mycobacterium smegmatis. By performing gene replacement through homologous recombination, we demonstrate that each of the two presumable RNase H type I encoding genes, rnhA and MSMEG4305, can be removed from M. smegmatis genome without affecting the growth rate of the mutant. Further, we demonstrate that deletion of both RNases H type I encoding genes in M. smegmatis leads to synthetic lethality. Finally, we question the possibility of existence of RNase HI related alternative mode of initiation of DNA replication in M. smegmatis, the process initially discovered in Escherichia coli. We suspect that synthetic lethality of double mutant lacking RNases H type I is caused by formation of R-loops leading to collapse of replication forks. We report Mycobacterium smegmatis as the first bacterial species, where function of RNase H type I has been found essential.The study was supported by POIG.01.01.02-10-107/09 project implemented under Innovative Economy Operational Programme, years 2007–2013 "Studies of the molecular mechanisms at the interface the human organism - the pathogen - environmental factors" and by grant of Polish National Center of Science 2011/01/N/NZ6/04186 “Identification of a novel mechanism of initiation of DNA replication in Mycobacterium smegmatis”

Recent Trends in Sea Surface Temperature and its Impact on Oil Sardine

The oil sardine is a coastal, pelagic schooling fish, forming massive fisheries in India. It has high population to doubling time of less than 15 months and is probably the largest stock in the Indian Ocean (www.fishbase.org). Like many other small pelagics, the oil sardine also has shown pbpulation crashes and sudden recoveries in the past. It is a tropical fish, governed by the vagaries of ocean climatic conditions. It is known for its restricted distribution in the Malabar upwelling region along the southwest coast. It attains a maximum total length of about 22 cm and plays a crucial role in the ecosystem as a plankton feeder and as food for large predators. The annual average production is 3.8 lakh tones (15% of all India total catch) valued at about Rs 350 crores. It is a cheap source of protein and forms a staple, sustenance and nutritional food for millions of coastal people

Nucleotide or Nucleoside Photoaffinity Compound Modified Antibodies, Methods for Their Manufacture and Use Thereof as Diagnostics and Therapeutics

Sites on antibodies having affinity for photoaffinity compounds, in particular purine or azidopurine containing compounds are taught. These sites provide for the site-specific attachment of nucleotide photoaffinity compounds to antibodies, e.g., ATP- or GTP-analog photoaffinity compounds by photochemical reaction. These nucleotide photoaffinity compounds may additionally be attached to molecules having a desired therapeutic or diagnostic activity, and the resultant conjugates used as diagnostics or therapeutics

Anomalous interactions in confined charge-stabilized colloid

Charge-stabilized colloidal spheres dispersed in weak 1:1 electrolytes are supposed to repel each other. Consequently, experimental evidence for anomalous long-ranged like-charged attractions induced by geometric confinement inspired a burst of activity. This has largely subsided because of nagging doubts regarding the experiments' reliability and interpretation. We describe a new class of thermodynamically self-consistent colloidal interaction measurements that confirm the appearance of pairwise attractions among colloidal spheres confined by one or two bounding walls. In addition to supporting previous claims for this as-yet unexplained effect, these measurements also cast new light on its mechanism.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, RevTeX4. Conference proceedings for CODEF-04, Colloidal Dispersions in External Fields, March 29 - April 1, 200

Incidential catch of sea turtles in India

Sea turtles are found all along the coast of India including the Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Five species inhabit the Indian waters. All the species are capable of taking long distance migration