The centrally located, mitochondria-poor (CMP) and superficially located, mitochondria-rich (SMR) circular muscle fibres in the mantles of some squids provide one of the few known examples of specialization in an obliquely striated muscle. Little is known of the mechanical properties or of the mechanisms and performance consequences of specialization in these fibres. We combined morphological a...

Five intemeurones with cell bodies and dendritic trees in the brain have axons 40-60/im diameter in one oesophageal connective. The fibres are phasic and multimodal, responding to visual and tactile stimuli. They have complex adaptation properties and two are suppressed completely during certain movements of the animal. The role of the fibres in overt behaviour has not been revealed by electric...

Animal cell movement is effected through a combination of protrusive and contractile events. Non-muscle cells contain stress fibres - bundles of actomyosin that are the major mediators of cell contraction and that can be compared to the highly organised actomyosin arrays of muscle cells. Recent studies have defined regulatory mechanisms that control stress fibre formation, placing the ROCK prot...

Abstract Phosphate-shelled brachiopods differ in filter-feeding lifestyle, with Lingula anatina an active infaunal burrower, and Discinisca tenuis a shallow marine epibenthic animal. The shells of these animals are built organophosphatic constituents, the organic fibres/sheets reinforced calcium phosphate to provide sophisticated ultrastructural robustness. This investigation examined nature fi...

Abstract Growing demand for animal products caused by a growing population and improved living-standards also yields large quantities of manure constituting an eminent problem. Herbivore can be utilized as fertilizer or biogas production, which, however, disregards the full potential feedstock lignocellulosics. Thus, integrated process combining production isolation natural fibres next to provi...

Functional outcome after peripheral nerve regeneration is often poor, particularly involving nerve injuries far from their targets. Comparison of sensory and motor axon regeneration before target reinnervation is not possible in the clinical setting, and previous experimental studies addressing the question of differences in growth rates of different nerve fibre populations led to conflicting r...

Inspired by the adhesion mechanisms of several animal species such as geckos, beetles and flies, several efforts in designing and fabricating surface engineering strategies have been made recently to mimic the adhesive and frictional behaviour of biological foot pads. An important feature of such biological adhesion systems is the ability to switch between strong attachment and easy detachment,...

Through nearly 40 years of research nerve growth factor (NGF) has become a paradigm for neurotrophic factors. NGF is synthesized and released from innervated target tissues in limiting amounts, thereby regulating the cell number and the differentiated properties of responsive neurones. Three distinct cell types are responsive to NGF: peripheral sensory and sympathetic neurones and certain types...

The understanding of skeletal muscle growth is an important goal in animal science and in human medicine. The purpose of this review is to demonstrate the importance of muscle fibre number for muscle growth and the influence of selected genetic and environmental factors on muscle fibre number. The total number of muscle fibres is mainly determined prenatally when multinucleated myofibres form f...