Project description:Effects of oil pollution and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) on the glycerophospholipids in the liver of male Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua)
Project description:Formaldehyde (HCHO) is the simplest form of aldehyde and it is naturally present in a wide range of resources. In spite of its cosmopolitan presence, formaldehyde can have deleterious health effects at higher concentrations like leukemia. However, most of the studies carried out so far have focused on the effect of formaldehyde exposure through inhalation and not much has been studied on the its exposure through food. In this context, the present study was carried out to investigate the effect of formaldehyde exposure through drinking water on the liver proteome of rat which would not only be helpful in assessing the impact of formaldehyde on health of organisms but also would be helpful in understanding the mechanism of detoxification.
Project description:The Norway rat has important impacts on our life. They are amongst the most used research subjects, resulting in ground-breaking advances. At the same time, wild rats live in close association with us, leading to various adverse interactions. In face of this relevance, it is surprising how little is known about their natural behaviour. While recent laboratory studies revealed their complex social skills, little is known about their social behaviour in the wild. An integration of these different scientific approaches is crucial to understand their social life, which will enable us to design more valid research paradigms, develop more effective management strategies, and to provide better welfare standards. Hence, I first summarise the literature on their natural social behaviour. Second, I provide an overview of recent developments concerning their social cognition. Third, I illustrate why an integration of these areas would be beneficial to optimise our interactions with them.
Project description:BackgroundMurine kobuviruses (MuKV) are newly recognized picornaviruses first detected in murine rodents in the USA in 2011. Little information on MuKV epidemiology in murine rodents is available. Therefore, we conducted a survey of the prevalence and genomic characteristics of rat kobuvirus in Guangdong, China.ResultsFecal samples from 223 rats (Rattus norvegicus) were collected from Guangdong and kobuviruses were detected in 12.6% (28) of samples. Phylogenetic analysis based on partial 3D and complete VP1 sequence regions showed that rat kobuvirus obtained in this study were genetically closely related to those of rat/mouse kobuvirus reported in other geographical areas. Two near full-length rat kobuvirus genomes (MM33, GZ85) were acquired and phylogenetic analysis of these revealed that they shared very high nucleotide/amino acids identity with one another (95.4%/99.4%) and a sewage-derived sequence (86.9%/93.5% and 87.5%/93.7%, respectively). Comparison with original Aichivirus A strains, such human kobuvirus, revealed amino acid identity values of approximately 80%.ConclusionOur findings indicate that rat kobuvirus have distinctive genetic characteristics from other Aichivirus A viruses. Additionally, rat kobuvirus may spread via sewage.
Project description:Inflammation is a key component of pathological angiogenesis. Here we induce cornea neovascularisation using sutures placed into the cornea, and sutures are removed to induce a regression phase. We used whole transcriptome microarray to monitor gene expression profies of several genes
Project description:Ecological factors, such as predation, have traditionally been used to explain sociability. However, it is increasingly recognised that individuals within a group do not associate randomly, and that these non-random associations can generate fitness advantages. The majority of the empirical evidence on differentiated associations in group-living mammals, however, comes from a limited number of taxa and we still know very little about their occurrence and characteristics in some highly social species, such as rats (Rattus spp.). Here, using network analysis, we quantified association patterns in four groups of male fancy rats. We found that the associations between rats were not randomly distributed and that most individuals had significantly more preferred/avoided associates than expected by random. We also found that these preferences can be stable over time, and that they were not influenced by individuals' rank position in the dominance hierarchy. Our findings are consistent with work in other mammals, but contrast with the limited evidence available for other rat strains. While further studies in groups with different demographic composition are warranted to confirm our findings, the occurrence of differentiated associations in all male groups of rats have important implications for the management and welfare of captive rat populations.
Project description:Individual differences in behaviors are seen across many species, and investigations have focused on traits linked to aggression, risk taking, emotionality, coping styles, and differences in cognitive systems. The current study investigated whether there were individual differences in proactive interference tasks in rats (Rattus Norvegicus), and tested hypotheses suggesting that these tasks should load onto a single factor and there should be clusters of rats who perform well or poorly on these tasks. The performance of 39 rats was tested across three learning tasks that all involved disengagement from an irrelevant previously learned stimulus to a relevant stimulus: latent inhibition (LI), partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE), and reversal learning (RL). An exploratory factor analysis revealed the existence of one factor underlying performance. A cluster analysis revealed the existence of sets of rats displaying either weak LI and strong PREE and RL effects, or vice versa. These findings suggest that proactive interference may be based on a single underlying psychological system in rats.
Project description:New de novo sources of omega 3 (n-3) long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) are required as alternatives to fish oil in aquafeeds in order to maintain adequate levels of the beneficial fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic (EPA and DHA, respectively). The present study investigated the use of an EPA+DHA oil derived from a transgenic Camelina sativa in feeds for Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) containing low levels of fishmeal (35 %) and fish oil (10 %), reflecting current commercial formulations, to determine the impacts on intestinal transcriptome, tissue fatty acid profile and health of farmed salmon. Post-smolt Atlantic salmon were fed for 12-weeks with one of three experimental diets containing either a blend of fish oil/rapeseed oil (FO), wild-type camelina oil (WCO) or transgenic camelina oil (DCO) as added lipid source. The DCO diet did not affect any of the fish performance or health parameters studied. Analyses of the mid and hindgut transcriptomes showed only mild effects on metabolism. Flesh of fish fed the DCO diet accumulated almost double the amount of n-3 LC-PUFA than fish fed the FO or WCO diets, indicating that these oils from transgenic oilseeds offer the opportunity to increase the n-3 LC-PUFA in farmed fish to levels comparable to those found twelve years ago.