Sperm proteins of the marine sessile mussels of the Mytilus edulis species complex are models to investigate reproductive isolation and speciation. This study aimed at identifying sperm proteins and their corresponding genes. This was aided by the use of monoclonal antibodies that preferentially bind to yet unknown sperm molecules. By identifying their target molecules, this approach identified proteins with relevance to Mytilus sperm function. This procedure identified 16 proteins, for example, enkurin, laminin, porin and heat shock proteins. The potential use of these proteins as genetic markers to study reproductive isolation is exemplified by analysing the enkurin locus. Enkurin evolution is driven by purifying selection, the locus displays high levels of intraspecific variation and species-specific alleles group in distinct phylogenetic clusters. These findings characterize enkurin as informative candidate biomarker for analyses of clinal variation and differential introgression in hybrid zones, for example, to understand determinants of reproductive isolation in Baltic Mytilus populations. 相似文献
Eutrophication with a large number of Microcystis aeruginosa commonly occurs worldwide, thereby threatening the aquatic ecosystem and human health. In this study, four kinds of algicides were tested to explore their influence on cell density and chlorophyll-a of M. aeruginosa. Results showed that aluminum silicate agent, which inhibited more than 90% cell growth compared with the control group, demonstrated the strongest inhibition effect immediately on M. aeruginosa growth. Furthermore, the production and release of microcystin (MC)-LR were investigated. Aluminum silicate, CuSO4, and Emma-11 were more effective than pyrogallic acid in disrupting the cells of M. aeruginosa, thereby increasing the extracellular MC-LR concentration. Aluminum silicate caused the highest extracellular MC-LR concentration of more than 45 mg·L–1. Biotoxicity was also detected to evaluate the environmental risks of MC-LR release, which were related to the usages of different algicides. Extracellular MC-LR concentration mostly increased when the biotoxicity of algae solution increased. The experiments were also designed to reveal the effects of physical conditions in riverways, such as natural sunlight, aeration and benthal sludge, on MC-LR degradation. These findings indicated that UV rays in sunlight, which can achieve a MC-LR removal efficiency of more than 15%, played an important role in MC-LR degradation. Among all the physical pathways of MC-LR removal, benthal sludge adsorption presented the optimal efficiency at 20%.
The aim of the study was to compare the performances of the Brungraber Mark II (BM II) and Mark III (BM III) slipmeters. Friction measurements with the two slipmeters were conducted in a laboratory using four footwear materials, four floor types, and three surface conditions. Both the coefficient of friction (COF) values obtained with the slipmeters and the force platform-based COF values were measured. The COF measured with the BM II was slightly higher than that measured with the BM III with a R2 of 0.83. A comparison of the averaged normal force between the two slipmeters showed that the BM II generated a significantly higher normal force than the BM III at a low COF and the difference of the normal force between the two slipmeters decreased when the COF value was increased. The regression analysis results in this study showed that the force platform-based COF values were closer to the COF values obtained with the BM III than with the BM II. The R2 values for the regression model between the COF values obtained from the slipmeter and the force platform were 0.90 and 0.79 for the BM II and BM III, respectively. 相似文献