We have been studied the effect of two diets one the growth of the Helix aspersa Müller during the juvenile stage under laboratory conditions. Diet I consists of commercial layer’s mash. We used ten lots of forty animals of 0.34 + 0.05 g, assigning five to each diet and keep them during the 6 first weeks of life in the laboratory conditions described by Perea et al. (2003) and García et al. (20...

The amino acid sequence of a snail cytochrome c has been determined. The molecule consists of a single polypeptide chain of 104 residues, and is homologous with other mitochondrial cytochromes c. Unlike the cytochromes c from vertebrates, there is no acetyl blocking group at the N-terminus. A change in an otherwise invariant position has been observed in position 87. Comparison with amino acid ...

The structure of the single gene encoding the cytoplasmic intermediate filament (IF) proteins in non-neuronal cells of the gastropod Helix aspersa is described. Genomic and cDNA sequences show that the gene is composed of 10 introns and 11 exons, spanning greater than 60 kb of DNA. Alternative RNA processing accounts for two mRNA families which encode two IF proteins differing only in their C-t...

UNLABELLED Serine Protease inhibitors (Serpins) like antithrombin, antitrypsin, neuroserpin, antichymotrypsin, protein C-inhibitor and plasminogen activator inhibitor is involved in important biological functions like blood coagulation, fibrinolysis, inflammation, cell migration and complement activation. Serpins native state is metastable, which undergoes transformation to a more stable state ...

ion channels are responsible for control of cell function in excitable tissues such as heart and brain and also in organs and tissues traditionally thought to be non- excitable including liver and epithelium. in the present research, the effect of lead (pb2+) on ca2+ -dependent action potential and currents was studied in f77 neuronal soma membrane of helix aspersa. for this purpose, action pot...

Terrestrial snails have a highly developed sense of olfaction. Because the procerebrum has a large number of cells and is located at the entry site of the olfactory nerve into the brain, the structure is thought to have a significant role in the processing of olfactory stimuli. The morphology of the procerebral neurons in the snail Helix aspersa was investigated through intracellular injections...

The procerebrum is believed to be important for processing olfactory information and storing olfactory memories in terrestrial pulmonate molluscs. Previous results have demonstrated that the procerebral cell population is morphologically heterogeneous. In the present study, serial sections and electron microscopy were used to investigate differences in synapse distributions. The results demonst...