Bioremediation of aquaculture wastes.

Environmental impacts of wastes from large-scale, intensive aquaculture are substantial and can lead to complex ecosystem changes. The application of known and new technologies can capture inorganic nitrogen from water and reduce organic enrichment of sediments. Biological methods, including Integrated Multi-trophic Aquaculture are now gaining interest for increasing in situ removal of nitrogen and other nutrients at sea cage sites.

Characterization of reproduction-specific genes in a marine bivalve mollusc: influence of maturation stage and sex on mRNA expression.

Numerous studies have investigated the reproduction mechanisms in mollusc species at a biochemical and physiological level; few have described these mechanisms at a molecular level, despite great commercial interest in several mollusc species. We investigated genes involved in gonad maturation of the marine scallop Argopecten purpuratus. A cDNA library was made from gonad tissue.

Copper transport by lobster (Homarus americanus) hepatopancreatic lysosomes.

Lysosomes are known centers for sequestration of calcium and a variety of heavy metals in many invertebrate tissues, and as a result of this compartmentalization these organelles perform important detoxification roles in the animals involved. The present investigation uses a centrifugation method to isolate and purify hepatopancreatic lysosomes from the American lobster, Homarus americanus. Purified lysosomal preparations were used to characterize membrane transport mechanisms in these organelles for transferring and sequestering cytoplasmic copper following its absorption across the plasma membrane from dietary constituents.

Copper transport by lobster (Homarus americanus) hepatopancreatic mitochondria.

Mechanisms of copper transport into purified mitochondrial suspensions prepared from the hepatopancreas of the Atlantic lobster Homarus americanus were investigated. Mitochondria were purified by combining methods of differential and Percoll-gradient centrifugation, and copper transport was studied using the copper-sensitive fluorescent dye Phen Green. Copper transport by this mitochondrial preparation was kinetically the sum of saturable and non-saturable transfer components.