Recent toxicology, in accordance with recommendations from the European Council, has demanded decrease in the number of vertebrates used in toxicology testing and their partial replacement with invertebrate animals, plants or even organ, tissue, or cell cultures. During the last 50 years various invertebrate species have been tested for their sensitivity to many chemical or physical agents to p...

We report on the construction of sex-specific linkage maps, the identification of sex-linked markers and the genome size estimation for the brine shrimp Artemia franciscana. Overall, from the analysis of 433 AFLP markers segregating in a 112 full-sib family we identified 21 male and 22 female linkage groups (2n = 42), covering 1,041 and 1,313 cM respectively. Fifteen putatively homologous linka...

Genealogical concordance is a critical overlay of all phylogenetic analyses, irrespective of taxonomic level. To assess such patterns of congruence we have compiled and derived sequence data for two mitochondrial (16S rRNA, COI) and two nuclear (ITS1, p26) markers in 14 American populations of the hypersaline branchiopod Artemia franciscana. Cladistic analysis revealed three reciprocally monoph...

The American brine shrimp Artemia franciscana Kellogg, 1906 is invasive in the Mediterranean region where it has displaced native populations of sexual A. salina and clonal A. parthenogenetica from many hypersaline wetlands. Brine shrimps are intermediate hosts of several cyclophyllidean avian cestodes, whose effects have been studied in native Artemia. However, determinants of these infections...

This is the first study on phylogenetic relationships in the genus Artemia Leach, 1819 using the pattern and sequence of secondary structures of internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1). Significant intraspecific variation in the secondary structure of ITS1 rRNA was found in Artemia tibetiana. In the phylogenetic tree based on joined primary and secondary structure sequences, Artemia urmiana and pa...

Complementary DNA clones have been isolated from the crustacean Artemia franciscana coding for a serum response factor (SRF)-homologue that is more than 96% identical to human and Drosophila melanogaster SRFs in their MADS boxes. The SRF homologue is expressed in ectodermal tissues, as determined by in situ hybridization experiments. A SRF-binding site has been identified in the promoter region...

Maculalactone A (1) constitutes a promising antifouling agent, inhibiting the formation of biofilms in marine and freshwater systems. In this study, we developed a new route, based on a late-stage formation of the butenolide core, leading to the total synthesis of maculalactone A (three steps, overall yield of 45%) and delivering material on a gram scale. In addition, analogues of the title com...

in this study the optimal amount of enriching artemia franciscana with a synbiotic combination of pediococcus acidilactici and fructooligosaccharide (fos( was investigated. the experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design in ten treatments: multi-level probiotics p. acidilactici (1×109, 1×108 and 1× 107 cfu per l) and multi-level enriched prebiotic fos (1, 2 and 5) g per l of solu...

the present study investigates the possibility of enriching adult artemia franciscana with singular or combined administration of pediococcus acidilactici and fructooligosaccharide (fos). the experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with four treatments, including synbiotic, p. acidilactici +fos (t1), probiotic, p. acidilactici (t2), prebiotic, fos (t3) and control (t4). to ev...