Search Results (6)

In the present study, 10 allotriploid (3nALT) and 10 allopentaploid (5nALP) six-month-old hybrid fish and two 3nALT and four 5nALP 40-month-old hybrid fish, which resulted by crossing female Russian sturgeon Acipenser gueldenstaedtii (Brandt and Ratzeberg, 1833) and male American paddlefish Polyodon spathula (Walbaum, 1792), were investigated. It was revealed that six-month-old 3nALT and 5nALP hybrids initially had “undifferentiated” gonads, while in the 40-month-old hybrids, only testes were observed in one case of 3nALT and one case of 5nALP hybrids. The testis of 3nALT hybrids was partially developed with spermatogonia, while the testis of one 5nALP hybrid was in the second developmental stage with low spermatogonia density. We could not determine gonad differentiation in any of the cases when the hybrid individuals had the W sex chromosome. We concluded that the gonad differentiation of these interfamilial hybrids follows a similar pattern to interspecific hybrids of different ploidy parent species of the family Acipenseridae, which is consistent with the classical Haldane’s rule. However, it cannot be excluded that the testis of this/these hybrid(s) may produce fertile sperm after sexual maturity, depending on additional genetic, hormonal and environmental factors, and further research is required for its evaluation. Full article

Polyodon spathula is a valuable species of sturgeon native to North America that has acclimatized very well in Europe. Detailed knowledge of the quantitative and qualitative productive performance of paddlefish meat is of interest. Through this article, we aimed to highlight the chemical composition, cholesterol, and collagen content of fillets issued from paddlefish aged two and three summers and to highlight, as well as the nutritional value, the profile of fatty acids and amino acids, the sanogenic indices and the biological value of proteins for the epaxial and hypaxial muscle groups. The chemical analysis of the fillets by age indicated slightly higher values in summer three, compared to summer two: +5.32% dry matter, +0.89% protein, +41.21% fat, therefore +10.94% gross energy and for collagen by 2.94%; instead, for water, minerals and the W/P ratio the values were lower by 1.52%, 10.08%, and 2.29%. The nutritional assessment revealed that paddlefish has a meat with high PUFA content (approx. 22% of total fatty acids) and good values of sanogenic indices (Polyunsaturation Index = 7.01–8.77; Atherogenic Index = 0.57; Thrombogenic Index = 0.38–0.39; Hypocholesterolemic Fatty Acids = 33.01–41.34; Hypocholesteromic/Hypercolesteromic Fatty Acids ratio = 1.9). Also, the proteins of these fish are of good quality for young and adult consumers (EAA index = 156.11; Biological Value = 158.46; Nutritional Index (%) = 28.30) and good enough for children (Essential Amino Acids Index = 96.41; Biological Value = 93.39; Nutritional Index (%) = 17.45). Full article

In derived bony vertebrates, activation of the melanocortin-2 receptor (Mc2r) by its ACTH ligand requires chaperoning by the Mc2r accessory protein (Mrap1). The N-terminal domain of the non-mammalian tetrapod MRAP1 from chicken (c; Gallus gallus) has the putative activation motif, W¹⁸D¹⁹Y²⁰I²¹, and the N-terminal domain in the neopterygian ray-finned fish Mrap1 from bowfin (bf; Amia calva) has the putative activation motif, Y¹⁸D¹⁹Y²⁰I²¹. The current study used an alanine-substitution paradigm to test the hypothesis that only the Y²⁰ position in the Mrap1 ortholog of these non-mammalian vertebrates is required for activation of the respective Mc2r ortholog. Instead, we found that for cMRAP1, single alanine-substitution resulted in a gradient of inhibition of activation (Y²⁰ >> D¹⁹ = W¹⁸ > I²¹). For bfMrap1, single alanine-substitution also resulted in a gradient of inhibition of activation (Y²⁰ >> D¹⁹ > I²¹ > Y¹⁸). This study also included an analysis of Mc2r activation in an older lineage of ray-finned fish, the paddlefish (p), Polyodon spathula (subclass Chondronstei). Currently no mrap1 gene has been found in the paddlefish genome. When pmc2r was expressed alone in our CHO cell/cAMP reporter gene assay, no activation was observed following stimulation with ACTH. However, when pmc2r was co-expressed with either cmrap1 or bfmrap1 robust dose response curves were generated. These results indicate that the formation of an Mc2r/Mrap1 heterodimer emerged early in the radiation of the bony vertebrates. Full article

Two species from the families Acipenseridae and Polyodontidae, Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii, Brandt and Ratzeberg, 1833; functional tetraploid) and American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula, Walbaum 1792, functional diploid) were hybridized. The hybridization was repeated using eggs from three sturgeon and sperm from four paddlefish individuals. Survival in all hybrid family groups ranged from 62% to 74% 30 days after hatching. This was the first successful hybridization between these two species and between members of the family Acipenseridae and Polyodontidae. Flow cytometry and chromosome analysis revealed two ploidy levels in hybrids. The chromosome numbers of the hybrids ranged between 156–184 and 300–310, in “functional” triploids and “functional” pentaploids, respectively. The hybrid origin and the ploidy levels were also confirmed by microsatellite analyses. In hybrids, the size and the number of dorsal and ventral scutes correlated with the ploidy levels as well as with the calculated ratio of the maternal and paternal chromosome sets. An extra haploid cell lineage was found in three hybrid individuals irrespective of the ploidy level, suggesting polyspermy. Although the growth performance showed high variance in hybrids (mean: 1.2 kg, SD: 0.55), many individuals reached a size of approximately 1 kg by the age of one year under intensive rearing conditions. Full article

The prominent rostrum of the North American Paddlefish, supported by a lattice-like endoskeleton, is highly durable, making it an important candidate for bio-inspiration studies. Energy dissipation and load-bearing capacity of the structure from extreme physical force has been demonstrated superior to that of man-made systems, but response to continuous hydraulic forces is unknown and requires special instrumentation for in vivo testing on a live fish. A single supply strain gage amplifier circuit has been combined with a digital three-axis accelerometer, implemented in a printed circuit board (PCB), and integrated with the commercial-off-the-shelf Adafruit Feather M0 datalogger with a microSD card. The device is battery powered and enclosed in silicon before attachment around the rostrum with a silicon strap "watch band." As proof-of-concept, we tested the instrumentation on an amputated Paddlefish rostrum in a water-filled swim tunnel and successfully obtained interpretable data. Results indicate that this design could work on live swimming fish in future in vivo experiments. Full article

This work presents a transdisciplinary, integrated approach that uses computational mechanics experiments with a flow network strategy to gain fundamental insights into the stress flow of high-performance, lightweight, structured composites by investigating the rostrum of paddlefish. Although computational mechanics experiments give an overall distribution of stress in the structural systems, stress flow patterns formed at nascent stages of loading a biostructure are hard to determine. Computational mechanics experiments on a complex model will involve a high degree of freedom thereby making the extraction of finer details computationally expensive. To address this challenge, the evolution of the stress in the rostrum is formulated as a network flow problem generated by extracting the node and connectivity information from the numerical model of the rostrum. The flow network is weighted based on the parameter of interest, which is stress in the current research. The changing kinematics of the system is provided as input to the mathematical algorithm that computes the minimum cut of the flow network. The flow network approach is verified using two simple classical problems. When applied to the model of the rostrum, the flow network approach identifies strain localization in tensile regions, and buckling/crushing in compressive regions. Full article