Abstract:Daurian pika (Ochotona dauurica) is one of the main rodent species in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, which distributed under grasslands and elm sparse forests, and will form different numbers of overwintering clusters in winter. Steppe polecat (Mustela eversmanni) is one of the main predators of Group size of overwintering colonies of Daurian Pika (Ochotona dauurica) may affect predation risk by mammals. Daurian Pika is one of the main rodent species in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, which distributed under grasslands and Elm (Ulmus pumila) sparse forests, and will form different numbers of overwintering colonies in winter. Steppe Polecat (Mustela evermanni) is one of the main predators of Dauurian Pika and often attacks the Daurian Pika’s burrow in autumn and winter. To investigate whether the size of the Dauurian Pika’s colony is affected by the risk of predation from Steppe Polecat. We conducted related experiments in the Baiyinxile pasture, Xilinhot City, Xilinguole League, Inner Mongolia, from October to November, 2004. The number of Daurian Pika burrows was used to estimate group size of pika. The number fecal droppings and holes excavated by Steppe Polecat within the habitat of each Daurian Pika colony were recorded as indicators of predation pressure. The nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test was used to detect differences in social group size between the colonies with and without signs of Polecat activity. The result showed that the rank sum of the colonies not surrounded by Polecat feces was 2 700.5, whereas colonies surrounded by Polecat feces was 1 040.5 (U = 422.5, Adjusted Z Value =﹣2.247, Adjusted P < 0.05). The rank sum of colonies with holes dug by Polecat was 461, whereas the rank sum of colonies without the Polecat excavation was 3 280 (U = 120, Adjusted Z Value =﹣2.493, Adjusted P < 0.05) (Table 1). The result of Mann-Whitney test suggested significant differences in predator preference between the two groups of colonies. In addition, the frequencies of feces and excavation trails rise with the increase of group size (Fig. 1 and 2). This difference indicated that the Steppe Polecat significantly preference Daurian Pika colonies with high group size. From the results of this experiment, the existence of the selective predation risk of the Steppe Polecat inhibited the increase of the overwintering clusters of the Dauurian Pikas during the wintering period, thereby maintaining the number of overwintering colonies at a limited scale and level.

Abstract:Common crane (Grus grus), also known as the Eurasian crane, is widely distributed in China. From 2019 to 2021, some cranes were in trouble when they stopped in the suburbs of Urumqi and were running into 220 kV transmission lines. Probably because there was a blind area in the front of crane, about 49 cranes fell after hitting the high-voltage line. And more injuries and deaths were reported by the local media previously, with a casualty rate of 5.4% per 1000 cranes. Cornfields and wetlands near the power line are the places where the cranes like to go, but the death toll in previous years was not so much. We examined the cranes in the field, all of which were sub-adults (more than 94% is 2-4 years old; such as their body feathers were lighter and the top of the head without red spot). According to observations, thousands of adult Common cranes have passed through this area in mid-March and late, with no casualties. Why we didn"t find the dead bodies of the one-year-old cranes then? Maybe they were led by experienced parents at that time. Examination of the injured body parts showed that the Common crane had the highest rate of broken wings, reaching 53%; the rate of leg fracture was also high, up to 51%; abdominal or back abrasions accounted for 24%; head or neck bruises were about 14%; about 41% of the injured cranes were with multiple injuries. Finally, we analyze the blind area of vision, and try to discuss, introduce and recommend several effective solutions. 修改：Common cranes (Grus grus), are widely distributed in China. Some of the population pass through the area around Urumqi (Western China) during their annual migrations. A number of these birds collide with power lines (220 kV transmission). Between 2019 and 2021 systematic surveys were conducted and at least 49 cranes were recorded killed because of hitting power lines. Injuries and deaths more than this number have been casually reported and we estimate the casualty rate to be about 5.4 % of all cranes visiting the area (Table 1). This death toll may be increasing. Cornfields and wetlands near power lines are the habitats frequented by the cranes. We examined cranes which had apparently collided with power lines, all were sub-adults (more than 94 % were 2-4 years old birds; body feathers were lighter than in fully mature adults and the top of the head was without the red marking). According to observations, thousands of adult Common cranes pass through this area in mid-March and later, but apparently there are no casualties. Why did we not find the dead bodies of one-year-old cranes? We suggest that they were led by experienced parents at that time. Examination of the injured body parts showed a high rate of broken wings, (53 %) and broken legs (51 %); abdominal or back abrasions were found on 24 % of birds, and head or neck bruises on about 14 %. About 41 % of the injured cranes had multiple injuries (Table 1). Why do these birds collide with power lines? Part of the explanation may lie in the frontal area of blind vision which projects in the direction of travel when a flying crane pitches its head forward to look down (Fig. 1c), perhaps searching for other cranes on the ground or suitable feeding areas. We discuss and recommend several effective solutions that should increase power line visibility and reduce crane collisions and deaths.

Abstract:Changes in environmental temperature may affect the wintering behaviors of birds and alter their home range sizes. It is important to understand how these three factors interact to influence the ability of birds to meet their physiological needs. In this paper, the detailed data of locations of 31 whooper swans (Cygnus cygnus) wintering in Sanmenxia Wetland of Henan Province were obtained by satellite tracking, and we used kernel density estimation to calculate the home range size of whooper swans by ArcGIS and R, Spearman correlation was used to determinate the relationship between mean temperature and home range size by SPSS, and the behavior observation data of swans were obtained by instantaneous scanning method, the Kruskal Wallis test was used to analyze the significant difference of behavioral patterns. According to the daily average temperature of our study area, the whole winter period was divided into three periods (Fig. 1). The results showed that there were noticeable differences in the wintering behaviors of the swans, including feeding, locomotion and resting form the early to late winter periods, related to the decreasing and increasing environmental temperature (Table 1). As winter behaviors changed, the home range sizes of the swans also altered (Table 2). The sizes of core area and whole home range in different winter periods were positively correlated with temperatures. Additionally, home range sizes at different time intervals changed greatly with the change in temperatures (Fig. 2). In the early winter, the variation in the behaviors of the swans mainly reflected the need to supplement energy to increase physical fitness and home range sizes increased. In the mid-winter period, movement was reduced to maintain energy and the home range sizes decreased. In the late winter, the home range sizes increased to allow for greater circling flights and foraging to improve migration ability. In conclusion, this study found that changes were made by swans to their wintering behaviors and home range sizes to meet their physiological demands during different winter periods.

Abstract:Species invasion is becoming a major ecological event affecting economic development and public health in the world. In order to explore the ecological squeeze effect of the malignant aquatic invasive species Pomacea canaliculata to the native near-niche species, the Bellamya purificata was selected as the test animals. Two sets of experiments were conducted. In the direct ecological competition experiment, P. canaliculata directly competed with B. purificata for the survival resources, while in the indirect endocrine interference experiment, the effects of secretions of the two kinds of snails on each other were observed. In order to simulate the competition of different water bodies in the field, two densities of the two kinds of snails were set, namely, 6 snails in each group (low density group) and 12 snails in each group (high density group). Different proportion of individual combinations of the two kinds of snails were set under two densities. In the low density group, the ratio of the number of P. canaliculata to B. purificata is 2︰4, 3︰3, 4︰2, while in the high density group, the ratio of the number of P. canaliculata to B. purificata is 4︰8, 6︰6, 8︰4. The data was analyzed using Excel and Spss17.0, and the significance test was analyzed using T-test. The results showed that no matter which group of experiments, the relative change rate of weight and the survival rate of P. canaliculata were better than those of B. purificata (Fig. 2, Fig. 5). In the direct competition experiment, the relative change rate of weight of P. canaliculata was significantly better than that of B. purificata (P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference in the survival rate (Fig. 3). In the low-density group, there was no significant difference in the relative change rate of weight and survival rate of the two kinds of snails; while in the high-density group, the relative change rate of weight of B. purificata was significantly worse than that of P. canaliculata (P < 0.05) when the number of B. purificata was extremely large (8), but the relative change rate of weight of B. purificata was not significantly different from that of P. canaliculata, but the survival rate of B. purificata would be significantly lower than that of P. canaliculata (P < 0.05) when the number of B. purificata was small (4) (Fig. 3). In the indirect secretion interference experiment, the relative change rate of weight of P. canaliculata was significantly better than that of B. purificata (P < 0.01), and its survival rate was higher than that of B. purificata (Fig. 4). In the low-density group, the survival rate of P. canaliculata of the high number (4) was significantly higher than that of B. purificata of the high number (4) (P < 0.05); while in the high-density group, B. purificata of the high number (8) all died within 28 days. Since the survival rate of B. purificata was high even in the high-density in the control group, which indicated that this effect was not caused by B. purificata itself, but caused by the indirect secretion stress of P. canaliculata. This life strategy of P. canaliculata caused a large number of deaths of B. purificata (Fig. 5). The above results fully indicated that the indirect secretion interference effect of P. canaliculata had a more serious ecological threat than the direct ecological squeeze effect, and the regulation ability of intraspecific competition of P. canaliculata was better than that of B. purificata, which may be an effective life history strategy for P. canaliculata as an invasive species.

Abstract:In order to explore the relationship between metazooplankton (Rotifers, Cladocera and Copepod) community structure and water environmental factors in Suzhou urban river, bimonthly quantitative collection and analysis of metazooplankton were carried out at 23 monitoring points in 8 urban areas of Suzhou City from January to November 2018 (Fig. 1), and the water environmental factors were determined. Metazooplankton were collected according to the national standard method and identified under microscope. A total of 127 species of zooplankton were identified, including 48 species of Rotifers, 41 species of Cladocera and 38 species of Copepod. The number of species in Shantang area was the highest, with 81 species, while in Western of the city the number was the lowest, with 49 species (Fig. 2). The water environmental factors were determined according to the national standards (Table 1), and it was found that there were some differences among different regions (P < 0.05). Using the formula to calculate the dominance (Y) of metazooplankton in Suzhou urban river, 24 species of annual dominant species (Y ≥ 0.02) were identified (Table 2). Using the formula to calculate the niche breadth (Bi) and niche overlap (Qik) of dominant species, it was found that the niche breadth was 0.25﹣0.84 (Table 2). According to this, the dominant species of metazooplankton in Suzhou urban river were divided into three niche groups, and the habitat heterogeneity between different areas led to a large difference in niche overlap (Fig. 3). The average annual total density of metazooplankton in each area was 124.1﹣626.4 ind/L (Fig. 4), with the highest in Western of the city and the lowest in Ganjiang area. Rotifers account for more than 85.3% of the total metazooplankton density in each area, making them an absolute dominant group. The annual total biomass of metazooplankton in each area was 0.49﹣1.12 mg/L (Fig. 5), with the highest in Western of the city and the lowest in Southern of the ancient city. The variation law of metazooplankton biomass in each area is not completely consistent with the change of density. Different habitats in different regions lead to differences in the current stock of metazooplankton. The metazooplankton community composition and environmental factors were subjected to detrended correspondence analysis (DCA), because the maximum gradient was more than 3, so the final selection canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was selected for the constrained sequencing. Canonical correspondence analysis shows that electrical conductivity, water temperature, dissolved oxygen, transparency, chlorophyll a, total nitrogen and total phosphorus are important environmental factors affecting the metazooplankton community structure in Suzhou urban river.

Abstract:Based on the field investigations in 30 counties of Yunnan Province between 2001 and 2015, the present paper analyzed the infestation and related ecological issues of mites (gamasid mites and chigger mites) on the body surface of Mole Shrews (Anourosorex squamipes) in the province. The constituent ratio (Cr), prevalence (PM), mean abundance (MA) and mean intensity (MI) of mites on A. squamipes shrews were calculated in a conventional way. Jaccard’s similarity coefficient (J) was calculated to compare the similarity of mite species. Margalef’s index (Mf) was used to measure the species richness of mites. The DF, DG and DG-F were used to measure the species diversity of mites at family and genus levels. The patchiness index (m*/m) and K parameter of negative binomial distribution (k) were used to determine the spatial distribution pattern of dominant mite species among different individuals of A. squamipes shrews. The association coefficient (V) was used to measure the mutual relationship between chigger mites (trombiculid mites) and gamasid mites. A total of 348 mole shrews (A. squamipes) were captured from 10 of 30 investigated counties in Yunnan. The collected 15 541 mites from A. squamipes were identified as 103 species belonging to 24 genera and 10 families. The Mf species richness of chigger mites was higher than that of gamasid mites, but all species diversity indices of gamasid mites at family and genus levels (DG = 2.80, DF = 2.32 and DG-F = 0.17) were higher than those of chigger mites (DG = 1.43, DF = 1.26 and DG-F = 0.12). The infestation of A. squamipes shrews with mites was common with a high overall prevalence (PM = 80.75%), mean abundance (MA = 44.66 mites/shrew) and mean intensity (MI = 55.31 mites/shrew). The PM, MA and MI of gamasid mites were obviously higher than those of chigger mites (PM: χ2 = 182.580, P < 0.001; MA: Z =﹣12.495, P< 0.001; MI: Z =﹣0.371, P > 0.05). A positive association existed between chigger mites and gamasid mites (V = 0.18, P < 0.001). Dipolaelaps anourosorecis (Cr = 92.79%) was the dominant species of gamasid mites and Leptotrombidium densipunctatum (Cr = 23.10%) was the dominant species of chigger mites. The two dominant mite species were of aggregated distribution among different individuals of their animal host, A. squamipes (m*/m > 1, k > 0). Different sexes and different ages of A. squamipes had different mite infestations, and more mites tended to choose male and adult A. squamipes shrews. The species similarity of chigger mites was relatively low on male and female A. squamipes shrews (J = 0.31), but that of gamasid mites was relatively high (J = 0.65). The species similarity of chigger mites was very low on different ages of A. squamipes shrews (J = 0.17), and that of gamasid mites was also low (J = 0.28). The infestation of A. squamipes shrews with mites is common with heavy infestation intensity and very high species diversity of mites. On A. squamipes shrews, L. densipunctatum is the dominant species of chigger mites and D. anourosorecis is the dominant species of gamasid mites, and they are of aggregated distribution. There are sex-bias and age-bias in the infestations of A. squamipes shrews with mites.

Abstract:Gut microbiota can help hosts maintain homeostasis, enhance nutrient absorption and energy metabolism, which is of great significance for the survival and environment adaption. Many factors can affect the gut microbiota, including microhabitat, captivity, seasonal changes, feeding items, sex, and development stage. In this study, the Big-eyed Ratsnake (Ptyas dhumnades) from Guilin and Xiangyang populations were selected as the research objects. The total microbial DNA was extracted from snake feces to sequence the V1﹣V3 regions of 16S rRNA gene using the amplicon sequencing and the differences in gut microbial composition, abundance, and gene function between the two populations were analyzed. At the phylum level, the dominant phyla included Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Fusobacteria (Fig 1). Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LefSe) analysis showed richly distributed bacteria and gene functions were different in the two populations (Fig. 2). However, there was no significant differences in a- diversity between the two populations (Fig. 3). The relatively high bacterial abundance in the Guilin population included the order Cardiobacteriales, the family Wohlfahrtiimonadaceae and the genus Koukoulia in Proteobacteria, and the members of the order Acidaminococcales and the genus Phascolarctobacterium in Firmicutes. However, the Xiangyang population owned the relatively high proportion in the order Burkholderiales, the family Aquaspirillaceaeke and the genus Microvirgula of Proteobacteria. In addition, the gene functional differences of gut microbiota between two populations were reflected in the high expression related to environmental information processing including ko02010 and ko02060 in Guilin populations. In contrast, those related to the ko02020 and ko00910 were mainly expressed in the Xiangyang population (Fig. 4). The high expression genes were related to the metabolism including ko00010, ko00520, ko00230 and ko00240 in the Guilin population, and ko00680 and ko00900 in the Xiangyang population (Fig. 4). Guilin population expressed a highly of ko03018, ko03010 and ko00970, while Xiangyang population expressed highly of ko02030. In the future, more studies are needed to focus on the composition of gut microbiota and the evolutionary relationships between gut microbiota and their hosts to provide relevant suggestions for the protection of wild animals.

Abstract:Tooth is an important feeding organ of carnivorous fish. The distribution, morphology and number of teeth in Siniperca chuatsi were observed s, and compared with S. kneri, S. scherzeri, Coreoperca whiteheadi. The dental structure, element composition and chemical composition of S. chuatsi were further studied with alizarin red staining, tissue sections, scanning electron microscopy, as well as X-ray energy spectrum (Mean ± SD) and infrared spectrum analyses. The results showed that S. chuatsi had maxillary teeth, mandibular teeth, vomerine teeth, palatal teeth and pharyngeal teeth (Fig. 1a﹣e). Among them, canine teeth were detected in front of maxillary teeth and the inner line of mandibular teeth, while the rest were villous teeth (Fig. 1a, b). The teeth of the vomerine, the palate and the pharynx were all villous (Fig. 1c﹣e). There were 3 rows in mandibular teeth in S. chuatsi and S. kneri, while 4 rows in S. scherzeri and C. whiteheadi (Table 1, 2). Alizarin red staining showed that the outer layer of canine and villous teeth was transparent enamel, and the inner layer was dentin containing pulp cavity (Fig. 3a, b). Histological sections showed that the dentin had loose structure and many pores, the tip of the tooth formed the enamel cap; the center was the pulp cavity, which contained pulp tissue (Fig. 4a﹣c). Scanning electron microscopy showed that the surface of canine and villous teeth was composed of enamel prisms, and the enamel layer had transverse stripes of enamel prisms (Fig. 5a, b). X-ray energy spectrum analysis showed that the main elements of canine and villous teeth were carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus (Table 3). Infrared spectrum analysis showed that the main component of canine and villous teeth was carbonated hydroxyapatite (Fig. 6a, b). The results show that S. chuatsi has more advanced teeth with canines in maxillary and mandibular teeth, and the structure and composition of canines and villous teeth are basically similar.

Abstract:In order to explore the effects of hypoxia-acidification stress on the growth and physiological metabolism of Larimichthys crocea in the early development stages, 4 treatment groups were designed, namely the control group [dissolved oxygen (DO) = 7.0 mg/L, pH 8.1], the hypoxia group (DO = 3.5 mg/L, pH 8.1), acidification group (DO = 7.0 mg/L, pH 7.3), and hypoxia-acidification group (DO=3.5mg/L, pH 7.3). Four replicates were conducted in each treatment group, and 4.0 × 104 fertilized eggs were placed in each repetition.The contents of insulin like growth factor 1 (IGF-Ⅰ) and growth hormone (GH), and the activities of pyruvate kinase (PK), glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT), alkaline phosphatase (AKP) and Na+-K+-ATPase (NKA) were determined after the treatment (recorded as the 0th d) and the 1st d, 3rd d, 5th d, 10th d, 15th d, 20th d and 27th d after hatching. Lengths and heights of bodies in each group on 27th d were also determined. Both hypoxia and acidification stress significantly inhibited the growth of body length and height on the 27th d, and the inhibitory effect of hypoxia-acidification stress was more significant. The contents of IGF-I were significantly lower in the three treatment groups at many time points than in the control group (P < 0.05), and the contents of IGF-I in the three treatment groups were significantly lower than in the control group on the 3rd d (P < 0.05). The contents of GH showed an increasing trend in different treatment groups, and were higher than in the control group on the 27th d (P < 0.05). The activity of PK of the hypoxia-acidification group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05) from the 1st to the 5th d. The changes in the other three groups basically showed a trend of increasing first and then decreasing. The activities of GPT in the 3 treatment groups were significantly higher than in the control group at many time points (P < 0.05). The activities of AKP of the 3 treatment groups were significantly lower than in the control group on the 3rd d (P < 0.05), and were significantly higher than in the control group on the 15th d (P < 0.05). The activities of NKA in the 3 treatment groups were significantly lower thanin the control group on the 3rd d (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Under the experimental conditions, the individual growth of L. crocea in the early stage in the environment of hypoxia and acidification stressis inhibited, and the dual stress of hypoxia and acidification has a more significant effect. Compared with the control group, the activities of metabolic enzymes of each treatment group changesignificantlyat many time points. Combining the analysis of the individual growth differences and metabolic enzyme activities of L. crocea in this experiment, it is concluded that hypoxia and acidification stress cause responsive changes in the activities of the main metabolism enzymes , which ultimately affects the individual growth of L. crocea.

Abstract:To explore the effects of different altitudes on changes of different metabolites and metabolic pathways the sera and livers of T. belangeri from Dali (high-altitude) and Mongla (low-altitude) were collected. The metabolites were analyzed by using the non-targeted metabonomics gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The original data were preprocessed by software XCMS (www. bioconductor.org/), converting the original GC-MS data into common data format (CDF) format. The XCMS program was used for peak identification, peak filtering and peak alignment to determine the parameters of XCMS (Fig. 1). A metabolite tree map was constructed based on the euclidean distance between samples, and clustering of samples was performed by a clustering algorithm (Fig. 2). Then the processed data were imported into SIMCA-P software (Umetrics, Umea, Sweden), and multivariate statistical analysis was carried out. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was used to analyze the metabolite thermograms with the heatmap function in the R package (Fig. 3, 4). The correlation analysis of metabolites was carried out for significance statistical test, and the statistical test method was the COR. TEST function in R language package (Fig. 9, 10). Metabolic pathways were assigned to metabolites based on Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG, http://www.genome.jp/kegg/), and Pathway Activity Profiling (PAPi) was used to compare the relative activities of different metabolic pathways in different groups (Appendix 1, 2). All analyses were performed using the R package. Differential metabolites were screened by One-way ANOVA analysis (P < 0.05) and ploidy change Log2 value (fold change > 1.5 or fold change < 0.667) (Fig. 5‐8). The results showed that there were 36 different metabolites in serum of the high-altitude population compared to the low-altitude population (Fig. 3), among which 32 were up-regulated (citric acid, glucose, cholesterol, et al) and 4 were down-regulated (N-acetylglutamic acid, decanoic acid, 4-hdroxybutyric acid, et al.). There were 18 metabolites showing significant difference in the high-altitude population compared to the low-altitude population (Fig. 4), among which 10 were up-regulated (malic acid, ribose, glucose, et al.) and 8 were down-regulated (glutamine, glycolic acid, octadecanoic acid, et al.). Compared with the serum metabolic pathways at low-altitude, there were 76 metabolic pathways with significantly different activity scores in high-altitude population (Appendix 1), among which 69 were up-regulated and 7 were down-regulated. There were 75 metabolic pathways with significantly different activity scores in the high-altitude population compared with the low-altitude population (Appendix 2), among which 43 were up-regulated and 32 were down-regulated. All of the above results suggest that T. belangeri would adjust the metabolites of different metabolic pathways (including tricarboxylic acid cycle, glycolysis, lipid metabolism and amino acid metabolism) in different tissues to adapt to different environments, and serum is more sensitive to environmental changes than the liver.

Abstract:Melanocortin 1 receptor gene (mc1r) is an important gene that controls pigment synthesis in animals. To explore the relationship between mc1r gene expression level and body color variation in Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), the present work obtained the full-length cDNA sequence of the gene by rapid-amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) technology, and the encoded protein was analyzed by bioinformatics. Simultaneously, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression levels of mc1r gene in different developmental stages (from fertilization stage to 12 months post hatch) and tissues (dorsal skin, ventral skin, dorsal muscle, ventral muscle, eye, brain, gill, midkidney, headkidney, intestine, liver, spleen and heart) of wild-type and yellow mutant Rainbow Trouts, respectively. The results showed that mc1r gene was 4 518 bp, containing 1 017 bp open reading frame (ORF) (encoding 338 amino acid residues), 532 bp 5? untranslated region (UTR), and 2 969 bp 3? UTR. Sequence analysis revealed that Mc1r protein of Rainbow Trout had the 7TM_GPCR_Srsx structural domain, and sequence analysis of amino acids and phylogenetic tree analysis indicated that conservation of Mc1r was higher in fish than that in other vertebrates (Table 2 and Fig. 2). qRT-PCR results showed that mc1r gene began to express at the fertilized egg stage of wild-type and yellow mutant Rainbow Trouts, and the expression in the early embryonic stages (from fertilized egg stage to multi-cell stage) was higher than that in the late embryonic stages (Fig. 3). Moreover, there were significant differences (P < 0.05) in the expression level of mc1r gene at the same stages between wild-type and yellow mutant Rainbow Trouts, including fertilized egg stage, 4-cell, 16-cell, blastula, gastrula, neurula, somite stage, 1 day post hatch, 3 days post hatch, 7 days post hatch, 1 month post hatch, 2 months post hatch, 3 months post hatch and 6 months post hatch (Fig. 3). mc1r gene also widely expressed in various tissues in 12 months post hatch wild-type and yellow mutant Rainbow Trouts, with the higher expression levels in dorsal skin, ventral skin and brain, when compared to other tissues (P < 0.05) (Fig. 4). Moreover, the expression level of mc1r gene in dorsal skin of wild-type was higher than that of yellow mutant Rainbow Trout (P > 0.05) (Fig. 4). In conclusion, the expression level of mc1r gene might be closely related to body color variation of Rainbow Trout. The results of this study provided valuable data for later studies on the molecular mechanism of Rainbow Trout body color variation.

Abstract:In China, Acipenser ruthenus is considered to be naturally distributed in the Irtysh River, but there is no report on them, and whether it is distributed in the Irtysh River. We collected a sturgeon specimen in the lower reach of the Irtysh River (185 Corps) in northwest of China in September, 2019 (Fig. 1). The Body length of the specimen is 91.5 cm, the weight is 5 520 g; 11 dorsal scutes, 64 lateral scutes and 12 ventral scutes. Mouth ventrally situated and small, middle of the lower lip clearly slit and 17 gill rakers, which conforms to the morphological characteristics of A. ruthenus (Fig. 2). According to the phylogenetic and genetic distance analysis of 10 species of the genus Acipenser based on the mitochondrial Cyt b gene sequence (1 141 bp, Table 1), the results showed that the genetic distance of this specimen is the closest with A. ruthenus in Danube and Ob River (sequence divergence was 0﹣0.00 2), and they have gathered on one branch of the evolutionary tree, which should be intraspecific (Fig. 3). In summary, determined that this specimen is A. ruthenus, and the species was the first time discovered in the Irtysh River, and also a new record species of Acipenseriformes distributed in China. The specimen was preserved in the herbarium of fisheries in the Heilongjiang River Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences (Specimen No. 80092871).

Abstract:Chodsigoa hoffmanni belongs to the Chodsigoa genus of the Soricidae family in the order Soricomorpha. The purpose of this research is to expand the distribution range of this species. Three specimens were trapped by the pitfall trap method in Yejiao Township, Qixingguan District, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, China. The specimens are medium-sized (head and body length 64.8 ± 3.0 mm). The tail length (76.6 ± 1.9 mm) is longer than head and body length. The tip of tail is white with a tuft of slightly longer hair. Hind feet length is 16.8 ± 0.1 mm. The skull is round. The rostrum is short and gradually tapering in the premaxillary region. Condyloincisive length is 19.22 ± 0.19 mm. Cranial breadth is 9.31 ± 0.09 mm. One upper incisor is sickle- shaped. Three upper unicuspids gradually decrease in size. The upper maxilla has one premolar and three molars. The third molar is small, with a very narrow talon. Pigmentation only present on tips of upper and lower incisors and first unicuspids. Maximum width across the upper second molars is 5.29 ± 0.08 mm. Based on key to Chodsigoa, the specimens collected are determined to be C. hoffmanni. The genetic distances between C. hoffmanni specimen recorded and our specimens were the nearest between 0.026 and 0.028, based on mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. It was shown that our specimen lay in a monophyletic clade together with C. hoffmanni in the phylogenetic tree. It is further confirmed that the 3 specimens collected are C. hoffmanni.

Abstract:Species distribution is important for studying biodiversity, as it provides the essential recognition for biogeography characteristics. The number of recognized distribution areas of the genus Barbastella in the family Vespertilionidae of Chiroptera has increased over recent years. According to the morphological and ecological indices, different species of the genus are usually distinguished. On August 16th, 2019, one male of Barbastella was captured by using mist net in Lei Sheng Village, Tongmin Town, Xishui County, Guizhou Province, China. Its forearm length is 36.16 mm. Its ears are squarish with distinctive transverse ridges. The ears are forward facing and join across the forehead. There is no lobe protruding from the outer edge of each ear. Tragus length (6.92 mm) is nearly a half of ear length (13.81 mm); the tragus is triangular (Fig. 1, Table 1). As a result, it is identified as Asian barbastelle B. leucomelas which representing a new record species in Guizhou Province, China.

Abstract:Estimated at less than 1000 individuals, the Baer’s Pochard (Aythya baeri) is a critically endangered (CR) species, and has been receiving widely attention in the world. China is one of the main distribution ranges for this species, here we summarized the distribution of Baer’s Pochard in Shaanxi Province based on field observations. The bird was found at Yanming Lake in Chanba Ecological Reserve of Xi’an City, Panzhuang village in Hancheng City, National Nature Reserve of Hongjiannao in Yulin, Dongfeng reservoir in Fengxiang County, Tianji Lake in Weiyang District Xi'an City, Luofu Lake in Huayin City Shaanxi Province and Qianweizhihui Wetland in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province from 2017 to 2021 (Table 1). The results showed that the distribution of Baer’s Pochard was only in the Weihe River basin to the north of Qinling Mountains, the wetlands in the middle reaches of the Yellow River and Yulin Great Wall sandstorm area in the North of Shaanxi Province. The Baer’s Pochard was first found of breeding at Liujiahaizi in Yulin. Our work provides basic information for future protection and research of this critically endangered species in Shaanxi Province.

Abstract:Geometric morphometrics is an important research method for the analysis of the cephalopod beak morphology, geometric morphometrics contains the landmark and outline method. Although the type of landmark is identified, the study of beaks based on the method of landmarks does not have a criterion for the selection of landmarks, so it is necessary to explore how many landmarks and samples are necessary to indicate the best variation of the beak pattern. Based on samples of 300 pairs of Uroteuthis edulis beak caught in 2018﹣2019, traditional morphological measurements of beak are used to explain basic morphological differences. Using the R-language geomorph package “gpagen” and the LaMBDA package “LaSEC” (Landmark Sampling Evaluation Curve) functions, the centroid size of the landmark data of 10, 20, 28 landmarks and 50, 80, 100, 200, 300 pairs of sample combination schemes is calculated, the centroid size is calculated, the landmark sampling evaluation curve is obtained, and the landmarks and sample numbers are explored to best demonstrate the degree of variation of the beak pattern. Finally, the morphological variation point of the whole beak sample is analyzed quantitatively, the point of large variation of the beak pattern is preserved, and the specific punctuation scheme is determined according to the best landmark number scheme. The standard deviation of the 12 morphological parameters of the beak between different samples was found to be large (Table 3), and the size of the beak increased significantly with the increase of the landmark (Fig. 3). Under different schemes, the slope and dispersion degree of the landmark sampling evaluation curve are significantly different, the three landmark schemes reach the optimal fitted value of the number of landmarks are different, 28 landmark scheme sampling curve with the increase of landmark collection subsampling curve slope gradually decreased, the variance gradually decreased (Fig. 4, 5). In order to best show the degree of morphological variation of the beak (F = 0.99), 26 landmarks were used in the upper and lower beak when the beak sample was about 50 pairs; The sample was 50﹣300 using 27 landmarks (Fig. 6). In addition, quantitative analysis of the morphological variation of the overall beak study sample (Fig. 7) found that, under the premise of ensuring the integrity of the beak form, 1﹣2 points were deleted on the basis of 28 landmark schemes to arrive at the best landmark scheme, that is, 26 landmarks: the upper beak deleted landmarks 5, 7, the beak deleted landmarks 5, 25; 27 Landmarks: upper and lower beak remove landmark 5. Using LaSEC method to quantitatively analyze the number of landmarks and samples, it is possible to propose a quantitative scheme to maximize the representation of morphological variation and centroid size. In addition, after analyzing the optimal number of landmarks, it is still necessary to combine the morphological variation map of the overall study sample, and according to the different types of landmarks definition, on the basis of ensuring the integrity of the pattern appropriate removal of small pattern variation points. Through a variety of considerations to clarify the beak landmark scheme, for the follow-up based on the landmark method of the head-foot beak morphology research to provide a scientific basis.

Abstract:Telocytes are a new type of interstitial cells. The most prominent morphological feature of telocytes is their very long and thin moniliform cellular prolongations with uneven thickness (telopodes) that can form cellular connections with surrounding homologous/heterogenous cells, blood vessels, and nerve endings. Telocytes are able to release extracellular vesicles and signal molecules, thus to exert their potential physiological functions. Previous studies have shown that the function of telocytes is related to the tissue regeneration in animals, therefore, the researches on telocytes in lower animals can help to further understand the mechanism of how telocytes participate in tissue regeneration and provide insights into human regenerative medicine. This review article summarizes the recent advances in researches on telocytes including their organ loeations, immunophenotypes, ultrastructural characteristics, structural relationships with surrounding cells, and functions in different animal species. The ultrastructure differences of telocytes in tissues and organs of different animals are also discussed. This review aims to help researchers further understand the biological characteristics and potential physiological functions of telocytes.

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