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Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the circulatory system is also known as peripheral blood, and the blood cells it carries, peripheral blood cells.
Hemoglobin, abbreviated Hb or Hgb, is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein present in red blood cells (erythrocytes) of almost all vertebrates as well as the tissues of some invertebrates. Hemoglobin in blood carries oxygen from the respiratory organs to the rest of the body. There it releases the oxygen to permit aerobic respiration to provide energy to power functions of an organism in the process called metabolism. A healthy individual human has 12 to 20 grams of hemoglobin in every 100 mL of blood.
Nitrogen fixation or Biological Nitrogen Fixation(BNF) is a chemical process by which molecular nitrogen (N
2), which has a strong triple covalent bond, is converted into ammonia (NH
3) or related nitrogenous compounds, typically in soil or aquatic systems but also in industry. The nitrogen in air is molecular dinitrogen, a relatively nonreactive molecule that is metabolically useless to all but a few microorganisms. Biological nitrogen fixation or diazotrophy is an important microbe-mediated process that converts dinitrogen (N2) gas to ammonia (NH3) using the nitrogenase protein complex (Nif).
Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-grey, malleable transition metal. The elemental metal is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer (passivation) somewhat stabilizes the free metal against further oxidation.
Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequently, they drift or are carried along by currents in the ocean, or by currents in seas, lakes or rivers.
A tunicate is a marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata. It is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords. The subphylum was at one time called Urochordata, and the term urochordates is still sometimes used for these animals. They are the only chordates that have lost their myomeric segmentation, with the possible exception of the 'seriation of the gill slits'.
Alvinella pompejana, the Pompeii worm, is a species of deep-sea polychaete worm. It is an extremophile found only at hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean, discovered in the early 1980s off the Galápagos Islands by French marine biologists.
Ascidiacea, commonly known as the ascidians, tunicates, and sea squirts, is a polyphyletic class in the subphylum Tunicata of sac-like marine invertebrate filter feeders. Ascidians are characterized by a tough outer "tunic" made of a polysaccharide.
Vanabins are a group of vanadium-binding proteins. metalloproteins. Vanabins are found almost exclusively in the blood cells, or vanadocytes, of some tunicates, including the Ascidiacea. The vanabins extracted from tunicate vanadocytes are often called hemovanadins. These organisms are able to concentrate vanadium from the surrounding seawater, and vanabin proteins have been involved in collecting and accumulating this metal ion. At present there is no conclusive understanding of why these organisms collect vanadium.
Oxidative stress reflects an imbalance between the systemic manifestation of reactive oxygen species and a biological system's ability to readily detoxify the reactive intermediates or to repair the resulting damage. Disturbances in the normal redox state of cells can cause toxic effects through the production of peroxides and free radicals that damage all components of the cell, including proteins, lipids, and DNA. Oxidative stress from oxidative metabolism causes base damage, as well as strand breaks in DNA. Base damage is mostly indirect and caused by the reactive oxygen species generated, e.g., O2− (superoxide radical), OH (hydroxyl radical) and H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide). Further, some reactive oxidative species act as cellular messengers in redox signaling. Thus, oxidative stress can cause disruptions in normal mechanisms of cellular signaling.
Ciona intestinalis is an ascidian, a tunicate with very soft tunic. Its Latin name literally means "pillar of intestines", referring to the fact that its body is a soft, translucent column-like structure, resembling a mass of intestines sprouting from a rock. It is a globally distributed cosmopolitan species. Since Linnaeus described the species, Ciona intestinalis has been used as a model invertebrate chordate in developmental biology and genomics. Studies conducted between 2005 and 2010 have shown that there are at least two, possibly four, sister species. More recently it has been shown that one of these species has already been described as Ciona robusta. By anthropogenic means, the species has invaded various parts of the world and is known as an invasive species.
Botrylloides violaceus is a colonial ascidian. It is commonly known as the chain tunicate, but has also been called several other common names, including: lined colonial tunicate, orange sheath tunicate, orange tunicate, and violet tunicate. Its native range is in the northwest Pacific from southern China to Japan and Siberia. Colonies grow on solid substrates and consist of individuals arranged in twisting rows. Outside its native range, it is considered an invasive species and is becoming more common in coastal waters of North America and other waters around the world, likely being spread by shipping industries.
Hemovanadin is a pale green vanabin protein found in the blood cells, called vanadocytes, of ascidians and other organisms. It is one of the few known vanadium-containing proteins. The German chemist Martin Henze first detected vanadium in ascidians in 1911. Unlike hemocyanin and hemoglobin, hemovanadin is not an oxygen carrier.
Pyura praeputialis is an intertidal and shallow water species of tunicate. It is one of three species of "cunjevoi" in Australasia. It is the first reported species of marine organism to create a "foam-nest" for its larvae.
Clavelina picta, common name the painted tunicate, is a species of tunicate, in the genus Clavelina. These animals, like all ascidians, are sessile filter feeders.
Patellamide A is a peptide natural product produced by Prochloron didemni, a cyanobacterial symbiont of Lissoclinum patella, and was first isolated in 1981. Patellamide A is one of many didemnid peptides. Other closely related peptides include patellamides B, C, and D and trunkamide. The patellamides and trunkamide show moderate cytotoxicity and activity against multidrug resistant cancer cell lines.
Pyura chilensis, called piure in Spanish, is a tunicate of the family Pyuridae. It was described in 1782 by Juan Ignacio Molina.
Phallusia mammillata is a solitary marine tunicate of the ascidian class found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
Nephromyces is a genus of apicomplexans that are symbionts of the ascidian genus Molgula.
Marine protists are defined by their habitat as protists that live in marine environments, that is, in the saltwater of seas or oceans or the brackish water of coastal estuaries. Life originated as marine single-celled prokaryotes and later evolved into more complex eukaryotes. Eukaryotes are the more developed life forms known as plants, animals, fungi and protists. Protists are the eukaryotes that cannot be classified as plants, fungi or animals. They are mostly single-celled and microscopic. The term protist came into use historically as a term of convenience for eukaryotes that cannot be strictly classified as plants, animals or fungi. They are not a part of modern cladistics because they are paraphyletic.
References
- 1 2 3 Michibata, Hitoshi; Uyama, Taro; Ueki, Tatsuya; Kanamori, Kan (15 March 2002). "Vanadocytes, cells hold the key to resolving the highly selective accumulation and reduction of vanadium in ascidians" (PDF). Microscopy Research and Technique. 56 (6): 421–434. doi:10.1002/jemt.10042. PMID 11921344. S2CID 15127292.
- 1 2 STOECKER, DIANE (December 1978). "Resistance of a Tunicate to Fouling". The Biological Bulletin. 155 (3): 615–626. doi:10.2307/1540795. JSTOR 1540795.
- ↑ Botte, L.; Scippa, S.; de Vincentiis, M. (September 1979). "Ultrastructural localization of vanadium in the blood cells of Ascidiacea". Experientia. 35 (9): 1228–1230. doi:10.1007/BF01963306. PMID 488290. S2CID 33061777.
- 1 2 3 Carlson, Robert (1975). "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrum of Living Tunicate Blood Cells and the Structure of the Native Vanadium Chromogen". PNAS. 72 (6): 2217–2221. Bibcode:1975PNAS...72.2217C. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.6.2217 . JSTOR 64680. PMC 432728 . PMID 1056026.
- 1 2 3 Webb, D.A. (1939). "Observations on the blood of certain ascidians, with special reference to the biochemistry of vanadium". Journal of Experimental Biology. 16 (4): 499–523. doi:10.1242/jeb.16.4.499 . Retrieved 24 June 2019.
- ↑ Stoecker, Diane (1980). "Relationships between chemical defense and ecology in benthic ascidians". Marine Ecology Progress Series. 3: 257–265. Bibcode:1980MEPS....3..257S. doi: 10.3354/meps003257 .
- ↑ Stoecker, Diane (1980). "Distribution of acid and vanadium in Rhopalaea birkelandi tokioka". Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 48 (3): 277–281. doi:10.1016/0022-0981(80)90082-9.