Zoological Research

61-64

Authors: Xue-Long JIANG

Obituary: Professor Ying-Xiang Wang (1938-2016)

67-74

Authors: Xian LI, Yu-Ru LI, Ling CHU, Ren ZHU, Li-Zhu WANG, Yun-Zhi YAN

Low-head dam impoundments modify local habitat and alter fish assemblages; however, to our knowledge, the pattern of how fish assemblages in the impoundments relate to local habitat, tributary position, and dam characteristics is still unclear. We used data collected in 62 impoundments created by low-head dams in headwater streams of the Qingyi River, China, to examine relationships between fish assemblages and local habitat, tributary position, and dam characteristics. We also assessed the relative importance of the three groups of factors in determining fish species richness and composition. Linear regression models showed that fish species richness was related to substrate heterogeneity, confluence link, and dam number upstream. Redundancy analysis showed that fish species compositions were influenced by substrate heterogeneity, confluence link, dam height, dam numbers upstream and downstream. Overall, dam characteristics were more important in affecting fish species richness but less important in determining fish species composition than local habitat (i.e., substrate heterogeneity) and tributary position. Our results suggest that low-head dam may affect fish species richness in impoundments by modifying local habitat and constraining fish movement, and the relative abundances of those fish species may depend more on species habitat presences and stream size than on impoundment size and number.

84-89

Authors: Jin YU, Peng-Cheng WANG, Lei LÜ, Zheng-Wang ZHANG, Yong WANG, Ji-Liang XU, Jian-Qiang LI, Bo XI, Jia-Gui ZHU, Zhi-Yong DU

Brooding is a major breeding investment of parental birds during the early nestling stage, and has important effects on the development and survival of nestlings. Investigating brooding behavior can help to understand avian breeding investment strategies. From January to June in 2013 and 2014, we studied the brooding behaviors of long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus glaucogularis) in Dongzhai National Nature Reserve, Henan Province, China. We analyzed the relationships between parental diurnal brooding duration and nestling age, brood size, temperature, relative breeding season, time of day and nestling frequencies during brooding duration. Results showed that female and male long-tailed tit parents had different breeding investment strategies during the early nestling stage. Female parents bore most of the brooding investment, while male parents performed most of the nestling feedings. In addition, helpers were not found to brood nestlings at the two cooperative breeding nests. Parental brooding duration was significantly associated with the food delivered to nestlings (F=86.10, df=1, 193.94, P<0.001), and was longer when the nestlings received more food. We found that parental brooding duration declined significantly as nestlings aged (F=5.99, df=1, 50.13, P=0.018). When nestlings were six days old, daytime parental brooding almost ceased, implying that longtailed tit nestlings might be able to maintain their own body temperature by this age. In addition, brooding duration was affected by both brood size (F=12.74, df=1, 32.08, P=0.001) and temperature (F=5.83, df=1, 39.59, P=0.021), with it being shorter in larger broods and when ambient temperature was higher.

96-102

Authors: Qiang CHEN, Xin-Jiang LU, Ming-Yun LI, Jiong CHEN

Colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF-1R) is an important regulator of monocytes/macrophages (MO/MΦ). Although several CSF-1R genes have been identified in teleosts, the precise role of CSF- 1R in ayu (Plecoglossus altivelis) remains unclear. In this study, we characterized the CSF-1R homologue from P. altivelis, and named it PaCSF-1R. Multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree analysis showed that PaCSF-1R was most closely related to that of Japanese ricefish (Oryzias latipes). Tissue distribution and expression analysis showed that the PaCSF-1R transcript was mainly expressed in the head kidney-derived MO/MΦ, spleen, and head kidney, and its expression was significantly altered in various tissues upon Vibrio anguillarum infection. After PaCSF-1R neutralization for 48 h, the phagocytic activity of MO/MΦ was significantly decreased, suggesting that PaCSF-1R plays a role in regulating the phagocytic function of ayu MO/MΦ.

110-115

Authors: Ian S. LOGAN

The World Health Organization has declared the present Zika virus epidemic to be a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’. The virus appears to have spread from Thailand to French Polynesia in 2013, and has since infected over a million people in the countries of South and Central America. In most cases the infection is mild and transient, but the virus does appear to be strongly neurotropic and the presumptive cause of both birth defects in fetuses and Guillain-Barré syndrome in some adults. In this paper, the techniques and utilities developed in the study of mitochondrial DNA were applied to the Zika virus. As a result, it is possible to show in a simple manner how a phylogenetic tree may be constructed and how the mutation rate of the virus can be measured. The study showed the mutation rate to vary between 12 and 25 bases a year, in a viral genome of 10272 bases. This rapid mutation rate will enable the geographic spread of the epidemic to be monitored easily and may also prove useful in assisting the identification of preventative measures that are working, and those that are not.