The Influence of Prednisolone (PRED) and Methotrexate (MTX) on the Cell and Connective Tissue Content of Subcutaneously Implanted Polyurethane Sponges in Rats

Findings indicate that prednislone and methotrexate have profound effects on the cellular events of acute and chronic inflammation, and influence the synthesis or degradation of connective tissue macromolecules at certain stages of the inflammatory process

Convergence of marine megafauna movement patterns in coastal and open oceans

The extent of increasing anthropogenic impacts on large marine vertebrates partly depends on the animals’ movement patterns. Effective conservation requires identification of the key drivers of movement including intrinsic properties and extrinsic constraints associated with the dynamic nature of the environments the animals inhabit. However, the relative importance of intrinsic versus extrinsic factors remains elusive. We analyze a global dataset of ∼2.8 million locations from >2,600 tracked individuals across 50 marine vertebrates evolutionarily separated by millions of years and using different locomotion modes (fly, swim, walk/paddle). Strikingly, movement patterns show a remarkable convergence, being strongly conserved across species and independent of body length and mass, despite these traits ranging over 10 orders of magnitude among the species studied. This represents a fundamental difference between marine and terrestrial vertebrates not previously identified, likely linked to the reduced costs of locomotion in water. Movement patterns were primarily explained by the interaction between species-specific traits and the habitat(s) they move through, resulting in complex movement patterns when moving close to coasts compared with more predictable patterns when moving in open oceans. This distinct difference may be associated with greater complexity within coastal microhabitats, highlighting a critical role of preferred habitat in shaping marine vertebrate global movements. Efforts to develop understanding of the characteristics of vertebrate movement should consider the habitat(s) through which they move to identify how movement patterns will alter with forecasted severe ocean changes, such as reduced Arctic sea ice cover, sea level rise, and declining oxygen content

Convergence of marine megafauna movement patterns in coastal and open oceans

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115 (2018): 3072-3077, doi:10.1073/pnas.1716137115.The extent of increasing anthropogenic impacts on large marine vertebrates partly depends on the animals’ movement patterns. Effective conservation requires identification of the key drivers of movement including intrinsic properties and extrinsic constraints associated with the dynamic nature of the environments the animals inhabit. However, the relative importance of intrinsic versus extrinsic factors remains elusive. We analyse a global dataset of 2.8 million locations from > 2,600 tracked individuals across 50 marine vertebrates evolutionarily separated by millions of years and using different locomotion modes (fly, swim, walk/paddle). Strikingly, movement patterns show a remarkable convergence, being strongly conserved across species and independent of body length and mass, despite these traits ranging over 10 orders of magnitude among the species studied. This represents a fundamental difference between marine and terrestrial vertebrates not previously identified, likely linked to the reduced costs of locomotion in water. Movement patterns were primarily explained by the interaction between species-specific traits and the habitat(s) they move through, resulting in complex movement patterns when moving close to coasts compared to more predictable patterns when moving in open oceans. This distinct difference may be associated with greater complexity within coastal micro-habitats, highlighting a critical role of preferred habitat in shaping marine vertebrate global movements. Efforts to develop understanding of the characteristics of vertebrate movement should consider the habitat(s) through which they move to identify how movement patterns will alter with forecasted severe ocean changes, such as reduced Arctic sea ice cover, sea level rise and declining oxygen content.Workshops funding granted by the UWA Oceans Institute, AIMS, and KAUST. AMMS was supported by an ARC Grant DE170100841 and an IOMRC (UWA, AIMS, CSIRO) fellowship; JPR by MEDC (FPU program, Spain); DWS by UK NERC and Save Our Seas Foundation; NQ by FCT (Portugal); MMCM by a CAPES fellowship (Ministry of Education)

Is the molecular structural organisation of marsupial and eutherian zonae pellucidae consistent with a common phylogeny?

Published in Proceedings of the Matrix Biology Society of Australia and New Zealand : abstracts of papers presented at the 24th Annual Conference of the Society held at Couran Cove Resort, South Stradbroke Island, Queensland, 28 September - 1 October, 2000

Structural organization and evolution of the marsupial zona pellucida

Copyright © 2002 Society for Reproduction and FertilityIn this review, the biochemical composition and structural organization of the marsupial and eutherian zonae pellucidae are compared. Differences between the zonae from these two groups of mammals are observed in their response to dilute proteases and reducing agents, in their potential glycosylation patterns, and in some of their functions. However, studies on the glycoconjugates and polypeptides of the three zona pellucida genes have not explained these different responses to the proteases and reducing agents. There is high sequence similarity between the zona polypeptides of marsupials and eutherians, as well as a similarity in the oligosaccharides present, as demonstrated by lectin staining. As the marsupial and eutherian lineages diverged from a common ancestor over 100 million years ago, these observations indicate that the three-dimensional structure of these glycoproteins is highly conserved throughout all mammals, although the complexity of its molecular organization has yet to be resolved. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that there are at least four groups of paralogous zona pellucida genes in vertebrates. The marsupial ZPA and ZPB genes have been named in accordance with their orthologues but the phylogenetic relationships of the marsupial ZPC gene require further investigation.William G. Breed, Rory M. Hope, Ole W. Wiebkin, Scott C. Spargo and Jamie A. Chapma

Studying root development in soil using DNA technology: idea to impact

Quantitative DNA assays for measuring root distribution and seed banks in soil are under development for wheat, barley, ryegrass, subterranean clover, phalaris and lucerne. These assays have potential to determine root distributions in soil profiles in either monoculture or mixed sward systems. The assays quantify DNA from live cells only and many of these cells will be in fine roots, prone to loss during soil washing with conventional root assessment procedures. In pot experiments the ryegrass DNA assay showed a rapid decline in soil root DNA over 10 days following plants being either defoliated or sprayed with glyphosate. This response is most likely due to DNA degrading in dying root cells. DNA assays for wheat and barley have also been used to assess genetic differences in root architecture under drought conditions and at field sites with hostile subsoils. The assays for pasture species have been used to measure differences in root distribution of pasture species in lime amended plots at the MASTER site (NSW DPI, Wagga Wagga). Results from the above studies show that quantitative DNA assays combined with high throughput DNA extraction systems are potentially useful to determine distribution of root systems under field conditions. This paves the way for high-throughput root phenotyping and incorporation of root architecture traits into breeding programs to improve drought tolerance as one possible role for the technology. In pasture trials the assays have the capacity to measure the impact of different management systems on specific species in mixed swards.Alan McKay, Ian T. Riley, Di Hartley, Sue Wiebkin, Herdina, Guangdi Li, Stewart Coventry, Sharla Hall, and Chunyuan Huan