The in vitro oxygen uptake of rainbow trout phagocyte-enriched head kidney leucocyte and head kidney macrophage suspensions was monitored. Stimulation of these cells with zymosan or phorbol myristate acetate induced a two-to 10-fold increase in oxygen uptake, the so-called respiratory burst. This respiratory burst activity was markedly enhanced in the presence of the calcium ionophore A23187 and inhibited in the presence of the NADPH oxidase inhibitor diphenyl iodonium or when glucose was absent from the buffer. The presence of sodium azide also inhibited the response of phagocyte-enriched suspensions by approximately 36 %, but only by 16 % for macrophage suspensions. The possible pathways responsible for the respiratory burst in fish phagocytes and its biological significance are discussed.
In the field: an interview with Martha Muñoz
Martha Muñoz is an Assistant Professor at Yale University, investigating the evolutionary biology of anole lizards and lungless salamanders. In our new Conversation, she talks about her fieldwork in Indonesia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and the Appalachian Mountains, including a death-defying dash to the top of a mountain through an approaching hurricane.
Graham Scott in conversation with Big Biology
Graham Scott talks to Big Biology about the oxygen cascade in mice living on mountaintops, extreme environments for such small organisms. In this JEB-sponsored episode, they discuss the concept of symmorphosis and the evolution of the oxygen cascade.
Trap-jaw ants coordinate tendon and exoskeleton for perfect mandible arc
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Trap-jaw ants run the risk of tearing themselves apart when they fire off their mandibles, but Greg Sutton & co have discovered that the ants simultaneously push and pull the mandibles using energy stored in a head tendon and their exoskeleton to drive the jaws in a perfect arc.
Hearing without a tympanic ear
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In their Review, Grace Capshaw, Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard and Catherine Carr explore the mechanisms of hearing in extant atympanate vertebrates and the implications for the early evolution of tympanate hearing.
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