Unexpected Distribution of Chitin and across Soft-Bodied Cnidarians.

Cnidarians are commonly recognized as sea jellies, corals, or complex colonies such as the Portuguese man-of-war. While some cnidarians possess rigid internal calcareous skeletons (e.g.

Isolation and Maintenance of In Vitro Cell Cultures from the Ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi.

The ability to isolate, monitor, and examine specific cells of interest enables targeted experimental manipulations that would otherwise be difficult to perform and interpret in the context of the whole organism. In vitro primary cell cultures derived from ctenophores thus serve as an important tool for understanding complex cellular and molecular interactions that take place both within and between various ctenophore cell types. Here we describe methods for reliably generating and maintaining primary cell cultures derived from the lobate ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi that can be used for a wide variety of experimental applications.

Establishing and maintaining primary cell cultures derived from the ctenophore .

We have developed an efficient method for the preparation and maintenance of primary cell cultures isolated from adult , a lobate ctenophore. Our primary cell cultures are derived from tissue explants or enzymatically dissociated cells, and maintained in a complex undefined ctenophore mesogleal serum. These methods can be used to isolate, maintain and visually monitor ctenophore cells to assess proliferation, cellular morphology and cell differentiation in future studies.

The Presence of a Functionally Tripartite Through-Gut in Ctenophora Has Implications for Metazoan Character Trait Evolution.

The current paradigm of gut evolution assumes that non-bilaterian metazoan lineages either lack a gut (Porifera and Placozoa) or have a sac-like gut (Ctenophora and Cnidaria) and that a through-gut originated within Bilateria [1-8]. An important group for understanding early metazoan evolution is Ctenophora (comb jellies), which diverged very early from the animal stem lineage [9-13]. The perception that ctenophores possess a sac-like blind gut with only one major opening remains a commonly held misconception [4, 5, 7, 14, 15].

A revisited phylogeography of Nautilus pompilius.

The cephalopod genus Nautilus is considered a "living fossil" with a contested number of extant and extinct species, and a benthic lifestyle that limits movement of animals between isolated seamounts and landmasses in the Indo-Pacific. Nautiluses are fished for their shells, most heavily in the Philippines, and these fisheries have little monitoring or regulation. Here, we evaluate the hypothesis that multiple species of Nautilus (e.

Biogeography of Phallusia nigra: is it really black and white?

Ascidians (Chordata, Tunicata) are an important group for the study of invasive species biology due to rapid generation times, potential for biofouling, and role as filter feeders in an ecosystem. Phallusia nigra is a putative cosmopolitan ascidian that has been described as introduced or invasive in a number of regions in the Indo-Pacific Ocean (India, Japan, and Hawaii) and in the Mediterranean. The taxonomic description of P.

Mutagenesis and analysis of genetic mutations in the GC-rich KISS1 receptor sequence identified in humans with reproductive disorders.

The kisspeptin receptor (KISS1R) is a G protein-coupled receptor recognized as the trigger of puberty and a regulator of reproductive competence in adulthood (1,2,3). Inactivating mutations in KISS1R identified in patients have been associated with iodiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (IHH) (1,2) and precocious puberty (4). Functional studies of these mutants are crucial for our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the regulation of reproduction by this receptor as well as those shaping the disease outcomes, which result from abnormal KISS1R signaling and function.

KISS1R intracellular trafficking and degradation: effect of the Arg386Pro disease-associated mutation.

The goal of this study was to investigate how the Arg386Pro mutation prolongs KiSS-1 receptor (KISS1R) responsiveness to kisspeptin, contributing to human central precocious puberty. Confocal imaging showed colocalization of wild-type (WT) KISS1R with a membrane marker, which persisted for up to 5 h of stimulation. Conversely, no colocalization with a lysosome marker was detected.