Zoological Research

241-243

Authors: Bing Dong, Rui-Chang Quan, Zhan-Qi Chen

Prolonged milk provisioning and extended parental care for nutritionally independent offspring, previously considered to only co-occur in long-lived mammals (Clutton-Brock, 1991; Royle et al., 2012), were recently reported in the reproduction of the milking spider, Toxeus magnus (Chen et al. 2018). Newly hatched T. magnus spiderlings require 53 days to develop to maturity, with an average adult body length of 6.6 mm. The mother provides milk droplets to her newly hatched spiderlings until they develop into subadults (~38 days old), during which their body lengths increase from 0.9 mm at birth to 5.3 mm at weaning. Although spiderlings can forage for themselves at around 20 days old, they remain in the breeding nest for weeks after maturity.

277-292

Authors: Eduard Galoyan, Alisa Bolshakova, Manush Abrahamyan, Ruzanna Petrosyan, Valeria Komarova

Valentin’s rock lizard (Darevskia valentini) is suggested to be the parent for several parthenogenetic species (e.g., D. armeniaca, D. bendimahiensis, D. sapphirina, and D. unisexualis) that evolved through hybridization. Complex evolutionary processes (including reticulate evolution) are occurring within the areas where Valentin’s rock lizard coexists with these and other rock lizards. Hence, a detailed biological specification of this species is important for understanding how vertebrates evolve. Valentin’s rock lizard is a long-lived (up to 9 years), small diurnal lizard with larger females than males, which is unlike other species of the genus. Their relatively large eggs and early reproduction period, which occurs just after emergence from winter shelters, are adaptations for living in a high elevation climate (higher than 2 000 m a.s.l.). Their body temperatures (31–32 °С) are comparable to body temperatures of rock lizards living in milder climates, though female body temperature is more dependent on substrate temperature and basking due to their lower activity than that found in males. Population density fluctuates from several individuals to several hundred per hectare and is not affected by parthenogen coexistence, although hybrids do occur in sexually biased populations where males are more common than females. The male home range is larger than that of females, though these home ranges broadly overlap. Prey is not limited in the mountain meadows and Valentin’s rock lizards feed on a great variety of arthropods. Infanticide occurs in high-density populations.

305-316

Authors: De-Li Xu,Meng-Meng Xu,De-Hua Wang

Ambient temperature is an important factor influencing many physiological processes, including antioxidant defense and immunity. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that antioxidant defense and immunity are suppressed by high and low temperature treatment in Brandt’s voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii). Thirty male voles were randomly assigned into different temperature groups (4, 23, and 32 °C, n=10 for each group), with the treatment course lasting for 27 d. Results showed that low temperature increased gross energy intake (GEI) and liver, heart, and kidney mass, but decreased body fat mass and dry carcass mass. With the decline in temperature, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) concentration, which is indicative of reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, increased in the liver, decreased in the heart, and was unchanged in the kidney, testis, and small intestine. Lipid peroxidation indicated by malonaldehyde (MDA) content in the liver, heart, kidney, testis, and small intestine did not differ among groups, implying that high and low temperature did not cause oxidative damage. Similarly, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) in the five tissues did not respond to low or high temperature, except for elevation of CAT activity in the testis upon cold exposure. Bacteria killing capacity, which is indicative of innate immunity, was nearly suppressed in the 4 °C group in contrast to the 23 °C group, whereas spleen mass and white blood cells were unaffected by temperature treatment. The levels of testosterone, but not corticosterone, were influenced by temperature treatment, though neither were correlated with innate immunity, H2O2 and MDA levels, or SOD, CAT, and T-AOC activity in any detected tissues. Overall, these results showed that temperature had different influences on oxidative stress, antioxidant enzymes, and immunity, which depended on the tissues and parameters tested. Up-regulation or maintenance of antioxidant defense might be an important mechanism for voles to survive highly variable environmental temperatures.

324-330

Authors: Ping Wang, Lei Shi, Peng Guo

In this study, a total of 106 individuals of Oreocryptophis porphyraceus from mainland China were morphologically examined and recorded. Differences between populations were compared by combining data from this study and other published research. The skulls of three specimens representing three proposed subspecies (i.e., O. p. pulchra, O. p. vaillanti, and O. p. hainana) were examined by computed tomography (CT) scanning. Both external morphological characters and skull comparisons consistently showed significant differences between the studied populations. Based on these data, we suggest that at least four subspecies of O. porphyraceus should be recognized in mainland China: i.e., O. p. porphyraceus, O. p. pulchra, O. p. vaillanti, and O. p. hainana. However, the taxonomical arrangement of the central Chinese populations with intermediate morphology remain unresolved.

337-342

Authors: Jian-Peng Chen, Wei Pang, Zi-Wei Zhao, Yan-Hui Bi, Xiao-Wu Chen

Hemorrhagic septicemia is an acute, highly fatal disease that affects goldfish (Carassius auratus). To gain a better understanding of related immune genes, the transcriptomes of the skin and head kidney of goldfish suffering hemorrhagic septicemia were sequenced, assembled, and characterized. Based on functional annotation, an extensive and diverse catalog of expressed genes were identified in both the skin and head kidney. As two different organs, pair-wise comparison identified 122/77 unigenes up/down-regulated (two-fold change with P<0.05) in the skin and head kidney. Most genes of the immune pathways were expressed and isolated in both skin and head kidney, including interferon (IFN) transcription factors 1–10 and Toll-like receptors (TLRs). Interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3), a key IFN transcription factor, was up-regulated at the transcriptional level by polyriboinosinic: polyribocytidylic acid (poly I:C) challenge and regulated the IFN response by increasing the activity of IFN-β and IFN-stimulated response element (ISRE)-containing promoter. This study will benefit the identification and understanding of novel genes that play important roles in the immunological reactions of fish suffering from hemorrhagic septicemia.