Mercury (Hg) is a global contaminant resulting of both natural processes and human activities. In aquatic environments, studies conducted on vertebrates highlighted changes gene expression or activity antitoxic oxidative enzymes. However, although Hg highly toxic compound in only few have evaluated the lethal sublethal effects inorganic Gammarus sp. Therefore, this study aimed at evaluating (Hg...

BACKGROUND The wood frog, Rana sylvatica, tolerates freezing as a means of winter survival. Freezing is considered to be an ischemic/anoxic event in which oxygen delivery is significantly impaired. In addition, cellular dehydration occurs during freezing because water is lost to extracellular compartments in order to promote freezing. In order to prevent severe cell shrinkage and cell death, it...

A number of moderately halophilic bacteria of diverse taxonomic groups have been studied to determine the intracellular concentrations of organic compounds at various salt concentrations. Betaine was accumulated in all of these organisms in proportion to the salinity of the medium, suggesting that this compound plays a major role in osmoregulation.