During a study carried out in spring-summer 2010, the invasive Ponto-Caspian polychaete Hypania invalida (Grube, 1960) was recorded for the first time in the southern part of the River Odra estuary (southern Baltic). This is the first record of this species in Poland or in any a Baltic estuary. The appearance of H. invalida in the Odra estuary coincided with flood water descent in the Odra, sug...

The swimming lamprey normally maintains the dorsal-side-up orientation due to activity of the postural control system driven by vestibular organs. Commands for postural corrections are transmitted from the brain stem to the spinal cord mainly by the reticulospinal (RS) pathways. As shown in previous studies, RS neurons are activated by contralateral roll tilt, they exhibit a strong dynamic resp...

Evolutionary origin and physiological significance of the tetrodotoxin (TTX) resistance of the vertebrate cardiac Na(+) current (I(Na)) is still unresolved. To this end, TTX sensitivity of the cardiac I(Na) was examined in cardiac myocytes of a cyclostome (lamprey), three teleost fishes (crucian carp, burbot and rainbow trout), a clawed frog, a snake (viper) and a bird (quail). In lamprey, tele...

Bream (Abramis brama, Berg, 1949; Family: Cyprinidae) is commercially valuable fish in the Caspian Sea fishing industry. Iranian Fisheries Organization annually produces and release up to 19 million Bream fries size for recruiting of this species. Its fries are mostly released into the Anzali wetland with 4 ppt salinity. Meanwhile, they sometimes are released into Sefidrood River (0.5 ppt), Sef...

Legally certified sturgeon fisheries require population protection and conservation methods, including DNA tests to identify the source of valuable sturgeon roe. However, the available genetic data are insufficient to distinguish between different sturgeon populations, and are even unable to distinguish between some species. We performed high-throughput single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-geno...

Compared with heteropolymeric assemblies of neurofilament (NF) triplet proteins in mammalian NFs, lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) NFs are homopolymers of 180 kDa subunits (NF180). We describe unique features of lamprey NF180 that distinguish it as a prototype of vertebrate NF subunits. These features may underlie key functions subserved by the earliest vertebrate NFs. Lamprey NF180 displays proper...

Previously we have shown that opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore in its low conductance state is the case in hepatocytes of the Baltic lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis L.) during reversible metabolic depression taking place in the period of its prespawning migration when the exogenous feeding is switched off. The depression is observed in the last year of the lamprey life cy...

Although many vertebrates can synthesize ascorbic acid (vitamin C), it is still unclear from the evolutionary perspective when the ability to synthesize the vitamin first appeared in the animal kingdom and how frequently the trait has been lost. We report here ascorbic acid biosynthesis ability in sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) which represent the most ancient vertebrate lineage examined thus...

Agnathans, comprising lamprey and hagfish species, have been reported to be practically devoid of HCO3-/Cl- exchange across the red blood cell membrane. This suggests that the capacity of their haemoglobin (Hb) to remove H+ is essential for obtaining a high CO2-carrying capacity in the blood. Hydrogen ion titrations were performed on oxygenated and deoxygenated composite Hbs from river lamprey ...