Biogeography of Parasitic Nematode Communities in the Galápagos Giant Tortoise Implications for Conservation Management
Fournié, G., Goodman, S. J., Cruz, M., Cedeño, V., Vélez, A., Patiño, L., Cunningham, A.
It is very important for the conservation of Galapagos Giant Tortoises to study the life cycle of the parasite essential for the tortoise survival. there were five different types of Nematodes were found in the fecal samples of the tortoise in the captive breeding center at Santa Cruz island. In the wild, different species of tortoises have different kinds of Nematodes to support their living. Therefore, it is very important to study the life of these parasites and the host -parasite relationship.
Isolation of amniotic stem cell lines with potential for therapy
Paolo De Coppi, Georg Bartsch, M Minhaj Siddiqui, Tao Xu, Cesar C Santos, Laura Perin, Gustavo Mostoslavsky, Evan Y Snyder, James J Yoo, Mark E Furth, Shay Soker & Anthony Atala
The amniotic stem cell (AFS) are isolated form the amniotic fluid. AFS are pluripotent mesenchymal cells, that can be expanded into banks at an undifferentiated state. The AFS cells have a capacity to expand up to 250 population doublings. AFS express many adult stem cells as well as multipotent stem cells markers. These cells can be differentiated into cells of adipogenic, osteogenic, myogenic, endothelial, neuronal and hepatic lineages. AFS cell banks have a great potential to be used in many cell therapies in future.
Scientific Literature
A Long Terminal Repeat Retrotransposon of Fissin Yeast has strong preferences for specific sites of interaction
Teresa L. Singleton and Henry L. Levin
Tf1 is an active Long Term Repeat retrotransposon found in the genome of the fission yeast Schizosccharomyces pombe. The selection of insertion sites in the genome of the host is very important. the Tf1 has the ability to hide in the hetrochromatin (non active ) regions of the host DNA. The modified Tf1 with ori/neo gene was used to find the integration sites of the Tf1. If the Tf1 inserted into the active part of the DNA, the yeast become G418 resistant. If the yeast is G418 sensitive and the genotypic analysis confirms the presence of the Tf1, it indicates that the Tf1 was hiding in the non-active regions of the host DNA.
Phylogeographic History and Gene Flow Among Giant Galapagos Tortoises on Southern Isabela Island.
Claudio Ciofi, Gregory A. Wilson, Luciano B. Beheregaray, Cruz Marquez,James P. Gibbs, Washington Tapia, Howard L. Snell, Adalgisa Caccone and Jeffrey R. Powell
This article is about the decrease of the population of tortoises in the volcanic islands and if genes are playing any role is this decline. The mitochondrial DNA samples were collected from 631 Galapagos giant tortoises across the volcanoes of Sierra Negra and Cerro Azul on the island of Isabela and were studied for similarities and genetic diversities. This information is very useful to understand the evolution and diversity of the Galapagos giant tortoises. I can use this article as a part of the life history and how the tortoise population from one island is different from another island and how the ecosystem of the island affects the evolution.
Some Characteristics of Simple Types of Predation and Parasitism.
C. S. HOLLING
The relation between prey population density and predator feeding rate (individuals eaten/hr) is called the functional response of a predator. At low prey density, the feeding rate is proportional to prey density. At higher prey density, the predator cannot eat all of the prey that are available, because of limitation by handling time. This means that no matter how many prey are available, the feeding rate is constant.