The application of sexual coral recruits for the sustainable management of ex situ populations in public aquariums to promote coral reef conservation — SECORE Project

• 1. SECORE (SExual COral REproduction) Project is an initiative of public aquariums and research institutions to produce and exchange sexual coral recruits for the sustainable management of ex situ populations. Here we present the results of the initial three years (2002–2004).
• 2. Primary polyps (n=501) of corals (Acropora tenuis, Agaricia humilis, Favia fragum) were transported from Rotterdam Zoo to Cologne, Burgers', Hagenbeck and London Zoos, where development of juveniles was monitored for 10 months. All polyps were produced at Rotterdam Zoo from laboratory colonies (A. humilis, F. fragum), and from larvae generated from field collected gametes at Akajima, Okinawa, Japan (A. tenuis). Additionally, planulae of A. tenuis (n=1440) were transported from Rotterdam Zoo to Burgers' Zoo and to London Zoo to obtain primary polyps.
• 3. Larval settlement (A. tenuis) was observed to be 3.00 ± 2.57% (mean ± SD; n=1480) in 2002 and 17.36 ± 6.01% (mean ± SD; n=1480) in 2003, significantly lower compared to settlement at Rotterdam Zoo (57.84 ± 11.01% in 2003; mean ± SD, n=1480). High post‐transport survival rates of 95.18 ± 4.86% (mean ± SD; n=501) were observed in primary polyps of all species.
• 4. Juvenile survival (t=10 months; A. tenuis: 18.4–86.2%; A. humilis: 0–19.7%; F. fragum: 13.3–72.7%) differed significantly between institutions. Mean colony sizes (measured 10 months after transportation) were, in all cases, similar or higher to those reported from literature.
• 5. The results demonstrate the potential of this method to serve as an economical and sustainable alternative to existing mostly exploitative techniques for aquarium stocking. The use of sexual recruits provides an effective and low cost alternative, which is, in principle, applicable to all coral species.
• 6. The project was extended from 9 to 28 institutions across Europe, the USA and Japan in 2004.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The twenty-first century,the century of plant breeding

To achieve global food security by 2050 primary production must almost be doubled, at least to 80 % by increasing production per unit land. The challenge to plant breeding is tremendous. It is necessary to convince the public of this challenge, who are already dealing with concerns about climate change, a scarcity of good arable land, the demands placed on land with regard to biomass production, scarcity of water and phosphorous as well as increasing consumption of meat. In terms of breeding, concerns are the very small number of major crops and low rates of breeding progress in self-pollinating cereals. Society and politicians can be easily distracted from the dire need to invest in basic breeding research and breeding applications when so many environmental concerns are being emphasized. A holistic approach to these problems is essential. The focus here is on both the obstacles to be overcome and the opportunities to ensure global food security by producing excellent germplasm by 2050. This can be achieved by new technologies and genomics as well as the continuing development of more traditional breeding methodologies.     

Diversity in horse enthusiasts with respect to horse welfare: An explorative study

A reduced level of welfare of horses is related to management factors such as low forage feeding, short feeding time, social isolation, and lack of unrestrained exercise. It has been assumed that welfare problems can be reduced and/or partly prevented by improving the knowledge and skills of horse enthusiasts. It has also been assumed that to improve the provision of information to horse enthusiasts, it is important to explore and gain more insight into horse enthusiasts’ motives, knowledge, and behavior. The aim of this exploratory study was to identify the diversity of horse enthusiasts in the Netherlands, with respect to the way they search and find out information, their emotional involvement with horses, and their attitude, their knowledge, and daily practices with regard to equine welfare. A Web-based survey using a 30-item questionnaire resulted in 4,267 respondents. Most respondents (84.6%) were female; the average age of the respondents was 34.2 (±13.5) years. More than half of the respondents (64.5%) believed that there were welfare problems throughout the whole horse industry. The most important reported source for information was the personal contact with other horse enthusiasts (82.8%), with veterinarians (74.5%), and with farriers (69.5%). It is, therefore, recommended that to disseminate relevant knowledge on equine welfare, particular attention should be paid to the acquisition and dissemination skills within the education programs of veterinarians and farriers. Although most respondents were aware of the issues that can compromise welfare, their knowledge did not always result in appropriate practices. Furthermore, a cluster analysis showed that horse enthusiasts can be categorized into 4 clusters from the way they search and find out information, their emotional involvement with horses, and their attitude, their knowledge, and daily practices with regard to the welfare of horses. To improve the provision of information to horse enthusiasts, it is recommended that the information provision to horse enthusiasts is organized around these 4 clusters of horse enthusiasts.     

High throughput phenotyping for aphid resistance in large plant collections

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Phloem-feeding insects are among the most devastating pests worldwide. They not only cause damage by feeding from the phloem, thereby depleting the plant from photo-assimilates, but also by vectoring viruses. Until now, the main way to prevent such problems is the frequent use of insecticides. Applying resistant varieties would be a more environmental friendly and sustainable solution. For this, resistant sources need to be identified first. Up to now there were no methods suitable for high throughput phenotyping of plant germplasm to identify sources of resistance towards phloem-feeding insects. RESULTS: In this paper we present a high throughput screening system to identify plants with an increased resistance against aphids. Its versatility is demonstrated using an Arabidopsis thaliana activation tag mutant line collection. This system consists of the green peach aphid Myzus persicae (Sulzer) and the circulative virus Turnip yellows virus (TuYV). In an initial screening, with one plant representing one mutant line, 13 virus-free mutant lines were identified by ELISA. Using seeds produced from these lines, the putative candidates were re-evaluated and characterized, resulting in nine lines with increased resistance towards the aphid. CONCLUSIONS: This M. persicae-TuYV screening system is an efficient, reliable and quick procedure to identify among thousands of mutated lines those resistant to aphids. In our study, nine mutant lines with increased resistance against the aphid were selected among 5160 mutant lines in just 5 months by one person. The system can be extended to other phloem-feeding insects and circulative viruses to identify insect resistant sources from several collections, including for example genebanks and artificially prepared mutant collections.     

First Report of Ovoviviparity in a Southern African Amphisbaenid,Monopeltis C. Capensis

The behaviour of breeding and non-breeding male maccoa ducks (Oxywa maccoa) was studied in South Africa. Individual ducks were observed continuously from sunrise to sunset in the wild, and all ritualized and non-ritualized behaviour was recorded. Diurnal time budgets of territorial and non-territorial males were translated into energy budgets, showing relative time and energy expenditures for resting, foraging, preening and bathing, territorial defence and courtship activities. A territorial male spent one-third of the daytime on active behaviour associated with reproduction. Territorial males averaged 297 displays per fifteen-hour day, or about one display every three minutes. Active defence of territory occupied 15 per cent of a male's time budget, adding an estimated 20 per cent to the energy a non-breeding male spent on self-maintenance. Active courtship of females occupied IS per cent of a male's time budget, adding 18 per cent to the energy a non-breeding male spent on self-maintenance. The increase in time spent on reproductive behaviour over that of a non-breeding male is achieved mainly through decrease of time allocated to resting in the budget of the non-breeder. Territorial males increased energy expenditure by a factor of 1,3, but devoted the same portion of time as non-breeders to actual feeding (21 per cent). Energy and time-saving strategies were associated with territorial defence and courtship, contributing towards optimization of time and energy budgeting.     

The histology of dermal glands of mating Breviceps with comments on their possible functional value in microhylids (Amphibia: Anura)

During mating male and female Breviceps become ‘glued’ together. The distribution of multicellular dermal glands varies between the sexes. The mate has a large number of holocrine glands on the ventrum, while the female has similar glands on the dorsum of the back. II thus appears that both sexes contribute to the ‘glueing’ mechanism. New hypotheses to explain the adhesion between the sexes are proposed, viz., that the shift to terrestrial habils and subterranean laying in Breviceps have secondarily resulted in male si2e diminution. In other microhylids which adhere during aquatic oviposition, yet demonstrate a terrestrial morphology and habits, bouyancy is suggested to be of primary functional value.     

Congenital bicuspid aortic valve in an English bulldog

A bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) demonstrating moderate valvular stenosis and mild insufficiency was identified in an asymptomatic 1-year-old male cryptorchid English bulldog by transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography. The BAV was most consistent with type 3 morphology, based upon human classification. Pulmonary valve dysplasia with mild pulmonary stenosis and a suspected persistent left cranial vena cava were also identified. Although BAV is the most common congenital cardiac malformation in humans, it is rare in the dog.