Arginine kinase (AK) was isolated from the longitudinal muscle of the sea cucumber Stichopus japonicus. Unlike the monomeric 40 kDa AKs from molluscs and arthropods, but like the cytoplasmic isoenzymes of vertebrate creatine kinase (CK), the Stichopus enzyme was dimeric. To explore the evolutionary origin of the dimeric AK, we determined its cDNA-derived amino acid sequence of 370 residues. A c...

the intestinal bacterial diversity of stichopus japonicus was investigated using 16s ribosomal rna gene (rdna) clone library and polymerase chain reaction/denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (pcr-dgge). the clone library yielded a total of 188 clones, and these were sequenced and classified into 106 operational taxonomic units (otus) with sequence similarity ranging from 88 to 100%. the cov...

We conducted a double-blind randomized controlled study of elderly individuals in a nursing home to investigate the effect of the consumption of jelly containing sea cucumber on their oral Candida load. The jelly contained a hydrolysate of the sea cucumber Stichopus japonicus, which contained triterpene glycosides called holotoxins. The holotoxins worked as a fungicide, and their minimum inhibi...

The effect of various levels of proteins, sulfates, and molecular weight (M w) of a sulfated-glycoprotein (NF3) from a sea cucumber, Stichopus japonicus, on nitric oxide (NO) releasing capacity from RAW 264.7 cells was investigated. The NF3 derivatives had various amounts of proteins (4.8~11.2%) and sulfates (6.8~25.2%) as well as different M w (640.3×10(3)~109.2×10(3) g/mol). NF3 was able to s...

Stichopus japonicus has been used as a folk medicine and as an ingredient in traditional food in East Asian countries. In recent years, the bioactive compounds found in S. japonicus have been reported to possess efficacy in wound healing and may be of potential use in the cosmeceutical, pharmaceutical and biomedical industries. Although the components and their functions require further investi...

Smooth muscle relaxation in vertebrates is regulated by a variety of neuronal signalling molecules, including neuropeptides and nitric oxide (NO). The physiology of muscle relaxation in echinoderms is of particular interest because these animals are evolutionarily more closely related to the vertebrates than to the majority of invertebrate phyla. However, whilst in vertebrates there is a clear ...

Members of the phylum Echinodermata, commonly known as echinoderms, are exclusively marine invertebrates. Among the Echinodermata, sea cucumber belongs to the family Holothuroidea. The sea cucumber Stichopus (Apostichous) japonicus (Selenka) is an invertebrate animal inhabiting the coastal sea around Korean, Japan, China, and Russia. Sea cucumber has a significant commercial value, because it c...

The intestinal bacterial diversity of Stichopus japonicus was investigated using 16S ribosomal RNA gene (rDNA) clone library and Polymerase Chain Reaction/Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE). The clone library yielded a total of 188 clones, and these were sequenced and classified into 106 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with sequence similarity ranging from 88 to 100%. The cov...

Twenty microsatellite DNA markers were developed for sea cucumber and used to investigate polymorphisms of 60 wild Apostichopus japonicus individuals collected from China. It revealed that all the markers were polymorphic. A total of 164 alleles were detected at 20 loci. The number of alleles per locus varied from 3 to 17 with an average of 8.2, and the expected heterozygosities of each locus r...