The following is a brief description of how lungfish research at Macquarie University began, of the period in which it flourished, and, most recently, of the winding down of the University's involvement with this research. During this latter period, the Australian lungfish in the wild were threatened by the construction of a megadam in their very limited habitat. Fortunately, this was averted in December 2009, after 3 years of lobbying the Federal Government. They now await another "Aussie" to make them accessible for further research by Australian and international researchers.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ygcen.2011.05.004 | DOI Listing |
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Grazing impacts on experimentally restored aquatic macrophytes as critical habitat for the threatened Australian lungfish.
J Environ Manage
December 2024
Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, 4111, Australia.
Article Synopsis
- Aquatic macrophytes, especially Vallisneria nana, are crucial for the survival of the endangered Australian lungfish but their availability has decreased due to floods and river fragmentation caused by dams.
- A study was conducted in the mid-Brisbane River to assess the growth and grazing resistance of transplanted V. nana in different patch sizes, revealing that macrophyte cover increased significantly in the absence of herbivores but was greatly diminished when herbivores were present.
- Despite a rapid initial growth and favorable conditions for V. nana, none of the patch sizes were large enough to withstand grazing pressure, indicating that simply transplanting is not enough for sustainable restoration without managing herbivore impacts.
The genomes of all lungfish inform on genome expansion and tetrapod evolution.
Nature
October 2024
Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
Article Synopsis
- The genomes of lungfishes, particularly the recently sequenced African and South American species, provide insights into the evolutionary transition from fish to tetrapods during the Devonian period.
- The Lepidosiren genome is the largest animal genome sequenced to date, about 91 Gb, and features significant genome expansion due to active transposable elements, growing rapidly over the past 100 million years.
- The study finds that while lungfish chromosomes retain features of their ancient tetrapod ancestors, the loss of limb-like appendages in some species is likely linked to the deletion of specific enhancers associated with limb development.
Increased scalability and sequencing quality of an epigenetic age prediction assay.
PLoS One
May 2024
Environomics Future Science Platform, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.
Epigenetic ageing in a human context, has been used to better understand the relationship between age and factors such as lifestyle and genetics. In an ecological setting, it has been used to predict the age of individual animals for wildlife management. Despite the importance of epigenetic ageing in a range of research fields, the assays to measure epigenetic ageing are either expensive on a large scale or complex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnravelling the mystery of endemic versus translocated populations of the endangered Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri).
Mol Ecol
March 2024
Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
The Australian lungfish is a primitive and endangered representative of the subclass Dipnoi. The distribution of this species is limited to south-east Queensland, with some populations considered endemic and others possibly descending from translocations in the late nineteenth century shortly after European discovery. Attempts to resolve the historical distribution of this species have met with conflicting results based on descriptive genetic studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMorphology of the cornea and iris in the Australian lungfish Neoceratodus forsteri (Krefft 1870) (Dipnoi): Functional and evolutionary perspectives of transitioning from an aquatic to a terrestrial environment.
J Morphol
January 2024
School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
The Australian lungfish, Neoceratodus forsteri (Krefft 1870), is the sole extant member of the Ceratodontidae within the Dipnoi, a small order of sarcopterygian (lobe-finned) fishes, that is thought to be the earliest branching species of extant lungfishes, having changed little over the last 100 million years. To extend studies on anatomical adaptations associated with the fish-tetrapod transition, the ultrastructure of the cornea and iris is investigated using light and electron (transmission and scanning) microscopy to investigate structure-function relationships and compare these to other vertebrate corneas (other fishes and tetrapods). In contrast to previous studies, the cornea is found to have only three main components, comprising an epithelium with its basement membrane, a stroma with a Bowman's layer and an endothelium, and is not split into a dermal (secondary) spectacle and a scleral cornea.
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