The effects of oral administration of different doses of estradiol-17 (E2) were examined on the growth performance, body composition, sex steroids, blood indices and histology of liver and gonad in Acipenser stellatus juveniles. Five-months-old fish (40.9 ± 1.1 g) were fed 0, 25 and 50 mg E2 kg diet for 210 1 days. Results showed that increasing doses of E2 caused reduce growth rate. No signifi...

An interspecific artificial hybrid was produced between two economically important aquaculture flatfish: olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) and starry flounder (P. stellatus). This hybrid displays the rapid growth characteristic of the former and tolerance to low temperatures and low salinity of the latter, but the genetics of inheritance in this hybrid have not been elucidated. Poly...

Phenotypic polymorphisms in natural systems are often maintained by ecological selection, but only if niche segregation between morphs exists. Polymorphism for eyed-side direction is rare among the approximately 700 species of flatfish (Pleuronectiformes), and the evolutionary mechanisms that maintain it are unknown. Platichthys stellatus (starry flounder) is a polymorphic pleuronectid flatfish...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Ethnobotanical studies in Mexico have documented that Mesoamerican peoples practise systems of in situ management of wild and weedy vegetation directed to control availability of useful plants. In situ management includes let standing, encouraging growing and protection of individual plants of useful species during clearance of vegetation, which in some cases may involve art...

To test whether macroalgae affect microbial colonizers in close proximity in a phylum-specific fashion, the community richness of planktonic bacteria and fungi was analyzed with selective oligonucleotide probes targeting the Cytophaga/Flavobacterium/Bacteroides (CFB), Alphaproteobacteria and Roseobacter group and the ITS1 region of marine fungi. Naturally occuring planktonic microorganisms were...

Immunoglobulin M (IgM) was purified from the serum of Sakhalin taimen (Hucho perryi) by salting-out, ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, and gel filtration on Sepharose 6B. The intact, tetrameric taimen IgM has a mass of 750 kDa with molecular architecture typical of IgM from other salmonids. The molecular weights of heavy (μ) chain and light chains (L) of the IgM monomer were estima...

Starry flounder Platichthys stellatus, a rare polymorphic flatfish exhibiting a large-scale geographic cline in the frequency of right-eyed (dextral) and left-eyed (sinistral) morphs, was studied to investigate whether foraging behaviour (turning angle and prey strike orientation) differed between dextral and sinistral laboratory-raised juveniles. Platichthys stellatus foraging on brine shrimp ...

Motility of spermatozoa was studied on 12 and 7 specimens of Acipenser persicus and A. stellatus, respectively. The density measured to be 2.22±0.65x109ml-1 in A. persicus and 2.21±0.55x109ml-1 in A. stellatus. Semen samples were diluted with two extenders containing tris 118mM, sucrose 23.4mM, pH=8, egg yolk (20%), dimethyl sulfoxide (15%) and penicillin potassium (500IU/ml) and biociphus exte...