Biochemical Characterization of Defective Encysted Brine Shrimp Embryos

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Authors
Austerberry, Charles
Issue Date
1979
Type
Thesis
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en_US
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Abstract
The development of the aquatic crustacean Artemia salina, the brine shrimp, has been studied extensively in biochemistry laboratories around the world. Large quantities of the dormant, encysted gastrulae {cysts) are commercially available, the majority sold as food for fish in aquaria and fish farms. Normally seventy to eighty percent.of the cysts will hatch after 24 hours of incubation in artificial seawater, yielding a nearly synchronous population of free-swimming nauplius larvae. The hatchability of cysts from Great Salt Lake in Utah, a major source of cysts for many years, has decreased dramatically in the past decade. We sought to determine the extent of pre-emergence development in these defective cysts by analyzing several biochemical. parameters of normal pre-emergence metabolism. Characterization of the defect(s) in recent Great Salt Lake brine shrimp cysts has implications for both molecular embryology and Great Salt Lake ecology. We have found that the defective embryos do not assemble polyribosomes under conditions in which normal embryos assemble discrete size classes of polyribosomes. Since the embryos fail to initiate protein synthesis, it is unlikely that they can resume any aspect of normal development. Analysis of DNA content has shown that the defective embryos are not simply uncleaved eggs, although they may have entered dormancy at a premature developmental stage. Studies of RNA and protein synthesis in cell-free systems ·supplied with radioactive precursors failed to give reproducible results. Cyst shells, or some factor(s) associated with cyst shells, may have affected the extracts used in these cell-free systems.
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vii, 50 p.
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Kalamazoo College
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U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
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