Browsing by Subject "animal"

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Open Access
Differences in the accumulation and distribution profile of heavy metals and metalloid between male and female crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus)
(2013) Tunca, E.; Ucuncu, E.; Ozkan, A.D.; Ulger, Z.E.; Cansizoǧlu, A.E.; Tekinay, T.
Concentrations of selected heavy metals and a metalloid were measured by ICP-MS in crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus) collected from Lake Hirfanli, Turkey. Aluminum (Al), chromium (52Cr, 53Cr), copper ( 63Cu, 65Cu), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni) and arsenic (As) were measured in the exoskeleton, gills, hepatopancreas and abdominal muscle tissues of 60 crayfish of both genders. With the exception of Al, differences were determined between male and female cohorts for the accumulation trends of the above-mentioned elements in the four tissues. It was also noted that the accumulation rates of Ni and As were significantly lower in gill tissue of females compared to males and no significant difference was observed for Cu isotopes in female crayfish. Cluster Analysis (CA) recovered similar results for both genders, with links between accumulations of Ni and As being notable. Accumulation models were described separately for male and female crayfish using regression analysis, and are presented for models where R2 > 0.85. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.
Open Access
Systematic discovery of Rab GTPases with synaptic functions in Drosophila
(2011) Chan, C.-C.; Scoggin, S.; Wang, D.; Cherry, S.; Dembo, T.; Greenberg, B.; Jin, E.J.; Kuey, C.; Lopez, A.; Mehta, S.Q.; Perkins, T.J.; Brankatschk, M.; Rothenfluh, A.; Buszczak, M.; Hiesinger P.R.
Background: Neurons require highly specialized intracellular membrane trafficking, especially at synapses. Rab GTPases are considered master regulators of membrane trafficking in all cells, and only very few Rabs have known neuron-specific functions. Here, we present the first systematic characterization of neuronal expression, subcellular localization, and function of Rab GTPases in an organism with a brain. Results: We report the surprising discovery that half of all Drosophila Rabs function specifically or predominantly in distinct subsets of neurons in the brain. Furthermore, functional profiling of the GTP/GDP-bound states reveals that these neuronal Rabs are almost exclusively active at synapses and the majority of these synaptic Rabs specifically mark synaptic recycling endosomal compartments. Our profiling strategy is based on Gal4 knockins in large genomic fragments that are additionally designed to generate mutants by ends-out homologous recombination. We generated 36 large genomic targeting vectors and transgenic rab-Gal4 fly strains for 25 rab genes. Proof-of-principle knockout of the synaptic rab27 reveals a sleep phenotype that matches its cell-specific expression. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that up to half of all Drosophila Rabs exert specialized synaptic functions. The tools presented here allow systematic functional studies of these Rabs and provide a method that is applicable to any large gene family in Drosophila. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.