Mangroves in the "Plasticene": High exposure of coastal mangroves to anthropogenic litter pollution along the Central-West coast of India.

Anthropogenic litter is a ubiquitous stressor in the global ocean, and poses ominous threats to oceanic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. At the terrestrial-ocean interface, tropical mangrove forests are subject to substantial exposure to mismanaged litter from inland and marine sources. While the effects of litter in different marine ecosystems are well-documented, research on the ecological consequences of litter pollution on mangroves remain nascent stage.

Report of suctorian ciliates (Ciliophora, Suctorea) as epibionts on meiobenthic nematodes in an oxygen minimum zone of the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean.

Three suctorian ciliate species, Paracineta livadiana (Mereschkowsky, 1881), Loricophrya bosporica Sergeeva Dovgal, 2014 and Acinetopsis lynni Baldrighi et al., 2020 are found as epibionts on meiobenthic nematodes in an oxygen minimum zone of the Arabian Sea. All three species are recorded here for the first time from the Indian Ocean.

Report of deep-sea epibiont ciliates (Ciliophora) from more than 1000 m depth of the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean.

The present article deals with the report of 7 suctorian epibiont species viz. Thecacineta calix, Actinocyathula homari, Loricophrya bosporica, L. cf.

Characterization of anthropogenic marine macro-debris affecting coral habitat in the highly urbanized seascape of Mumbai megacity.

Marine debris has become a major form of pollution and a serious ecosystem health concern. The present study evaluates the accumulation, origin, and fate of debris in intertidal coral habitats of Mumbai-one of the world's highly populated coastal cities on the west coast of India. Predominantly, seven hermatypic coral species belonging to seven genera and five families were identified and mainly represented by Pseudosidastrea, Porites, and Bernardpora.

A morphological analysis of the cervical spine of the dolphin.

Objective: Morphology of bones of cervical vertebrae of dolphin was studied. When compared to human vertebrae the structural modifications in terms of functional needs are evaluated.

Material: Morphological analysis of duly prepared bones of species was carried out.

Comparative quantitative analysis of osseous anatomy of the craniovertebral junction of tiger, horse, deer, and humans.

Aim: To compare the osseous anatomy of the craniovertebral junction of a horse, deer, and tiger with that of a human being. The variation in the structure of bones in these animals is analyzed.

Materials And Methods: Various dimensions of the bones of the craniovertebral junction of the horse, deer, and tiger were quantitatively measured, and their differences with those of human bones were compared and analyzed.

Parthenogenesis and somatic cell nuclear transfer in sheep oocytes using Polscope.

Parthenogenesis and Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) techniques, offer a unique approach to manipulate the genetic composition of derived human embryonic stem cells - an essential step if the full opportunities for disease modeling, drug discovery or individualized stem cell therapy are to be realized. The present study describes the use of sheep oocytes to acquire expertise and establish methods to reconstruct embryos for obtaining blastocysts before venturing into human SCNT where the oocytes are a very precious starting material. Maturation of sheep eggs in vitro for 20-24 hr resulted in 65% metaphase II (MII) eggs which were either parthenogenetically activated using calcium ionomycin or ethanol or subjected to SCNT using cumulus cell as somatic cell.