Alessandro Mosco

Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Integrata di Trieste · Department of Laboratory Medicine

Although Mexican Cactaceae are a significative component of Mexican flora and have a relevant economic and ornamental value, the knowledge of the environmental factors characterizing their niche is still rather limited. This study was aimed at defining the ecological niche and potential distribution of 9 species of the genus Thelocactus. Climatic a...

Aim Although Mexican Cactaceae are a significative component of Mexican flora and have a relevant economic and ornamental value, the knowledge of the environmental factors characterising their niche is still quite incomplete. This study was aimed at defining the potential distribution and ecological niche of Thelocactus species. Methods Climatic a...

The reproductive cycle of female wild marble trout Salmo marmoratus was studied in a prealpine watercourse (Northeast Italy). Gonadosomatic index, oocyte growth and plasma levels of 17β-oestradiol and testosterone were bimonthly measured during one year to obtain a detailed dataset and to gain useful tools for the identification of the reproductive...

The crustacean hyperglycaemic hormone (CHH), a pleiotropic neuropeptide, belongs to a family of structurally related peptides, having six cysteine residues in conserved positions forming three disulphide bridges, and regulating several physiological processes in crustaceans and insects. Structure-activity studies have shown that amidation of the C-...

Conversion of one or more amino acids in eukaryotic peptides to the D-configuration is catalyzed by specific L/D peptide isomerases and it is a poorly investigated post-translational modification. No common modified amino acid and no specific modified position have been recognized and mechanisms underlying changes in the peptide function provided b...

The crustacean Hyperglycemic Hormone (cHH) is a neuropeptide present in many decapods. Two different chiral isomers are simultaneously present in Astacid crayfish and their specific biological functions are still poorly understood. The present study is aimed at better understanding the potentially different effect of each of the isomers on the hepa...

Please take a look at the excel document named as Table S1. (XLSX)

The distribution of BLAST 13 Top Hit Species matching P. leptodactylus contigs. (TIF)

Clustering the 12 mapping profiles of individual females using hierarchical and principal component analyses. A: Hierarchical clustering applying three clustering protocols, complete and single linkages and group average. (S) – sham injected, (N) – intact, (L) – L-cHH-injected, (D) – D-cHH-injected. B: principal component analysis. Green – native,...

The crustacean Hyperglycemic Hormone (cHH) is a neuropeptide present in many decapods. Two different chiral isomers are simultaneously present in Astacid crayfish and their specific biological functions are still poorly understood. The present study is aimed at better understanding the potentially different effect of each of the isomers on the hepa...

The crustacean Hyperglycemic Hormone (cHH) belongs to a family of neuropeptides synthesized and released by the X-organ sinus gland complex, which is located in the eyestalks. The cHH is a pleiotropic hormone regulating many physiological processes like glucose metabolism, molting and reproduction. We cloned a 176 bp fragment from the transcription...

Biogenic amines, particularly serotonin, are recognised to play an important role in controlling the aggression of invertebrates, whereas the effect of neurohormones is still underexplored. The crustacean Hyperglycemic Hormone (cHH) is a multifunctional member of the eyestalk neuropeptide family. We expect that this neuropeptide influences aggressi...

Betalains are soluble pigments found only in the suborder Chenopodiniae, while in all other Angiospermae they are replaced by anthocyanins. The convergent evolution of the presence of anthocyanins and betalains in vegetative tissues supports the hypothesis of a similar function, based on the absorption properties of these pigments. The screening ef...

The crustacean Hyperglycemic Hormone (cHH) is present in many decapods in different isoforms, whose specific biological functions are still poorly understood. Here we report on the first chemical synthesis of three distinct isoforms of the cHH of Astacus leptodactylus carried out by solid phase peptide synthesis coupled to native chemical ligation....

Spines are a striking feature of cacti and display wide variation in size, number, shape, and texture. This study showed that Turbinicarpus species exhibit not only a high variability in the gross morphology of the spines, but also in their micro-morphology. Their surface can be smooth or ornamented with projections that can be low, conical, pinnat...

The crustacean hyperglycemic hormone is the most abundant neuropeptide present in the eyestalk of Crustacea and its main role is to control the glucose level in the hemolymph. Our study was aimed at assessing the importance of C-terminal amidation for its biological activity. Two recombinant peptides were produced, Asl-rcHH-Gly with a free carboxyl...

A phenetic analysis of the genus Thelocactus is presented. The collected data, 65, and the 34 Operational Taxonomic Units used for the study were processed by a principal components analysis method. The ordinations made lead us to conclude that Hamatocactus setispinus is not congeneric with Thelocactus from which it has to be separated. Some nomenc...

It has been proven that the anthracyclines induce an important, noncytotoxic histamine release from rat peritoneal mast cells. As mast cells derived from different tissues exhibit marked heterogeneity, the effect of Adriamycin in comparison with other antineoplastic agents was tested on fragments of the right heart auricle, which contain a great nu...

A molecular characterization of yolk proteins in Squilla mantis is presented and their specific features are compared with the characteristics of crustacean yolk proteins as described by other authors. Two immunologically unrelated proteins, A and B, are identified in mature animals by means of immunoelectrophoresis, both showing a different mobili...

The femal specific proteins (FSP) identified in the hemolymph of Squilla mantis females are here proven to be vitellogenins (VTG) by immunological and electrophoretical methods. VTG 1 which has a higher molecular weight (MW) and only one central form, both in hemolymph and eggs, can be detected immunoelectrophoretically. VTG 2 and 3 have similar lo...

The SDS-PAGE of Squilla mantis hemolymph reveals 16 major protein bands. Three of them, showing a molecular weight (MW) around 125 kdal, are female specific proteins (FSP) to be considered as vitellogenins because their amount increases with ovarian maturity. The MW of the hemocyanin subunit is confirmed around 70 kdal. Low MW proteins appear or in...