Laurent Boualit

Agroscope · Plants and Plant Products

Hi everyone,

I am currently working with X. laevis and I would like to collect blood samples. This would happened right before euthanasia on anesthetized individuals. My aim is to measure testosterone level. Does anyone have any document/protocol to share ?

Best wishes,

Laurent

Hello,

I'm looking for recent data on the use of fertilizers and pesticides in EU forestry. Would you know any EU website where I could find it ?

Cheers,

Laurent

Hello,

Amphibians eggs are surrounded of a jelly coat constituted by one to several layers depending on the considered species. The composition of these layers depends on the considered layer and species. The functions of this layers are multiple. Indeed, the jelly coat is for instance known to be involved in fertilization, to avoid polyspermy, to act as a sperm chemoattractant and to play an important role of barrier against UV, infection and contaminants. But, the role of barrier against contaminants is not so clear. Indeed, the complex structure of the jelly coat provides to it an affinity to specific molecules. Therefore, certains molecules are stopped by the layers while others penetrate to the embryos.

In spite of this, most protocole for testing effect of toxicants on amphibians suggest to dejelly the eggs before the exposure. From my point of view, this recommendation lead to a loss of ecological relevance and I'm wondering if dejellying should not be reconsidered.

How about you ? Is there something that I don't see ?

Hello,

I plan to measure AChE esterase on amphibians and I read that Butyrylcholinesterase can interfere in the measurement.

If I measure the transformation of Acetylcholine iodide, what am I measuring? Acetylcholinesterase activity or both acetyl- and butyrylcholinesterase activities ? Should I measure AChE activity with a BChE inhibitor for stating that I'm measuring AChE?

For me, I should but I've read a lot of articles that don't mention any use of the inhibitors, so I'm a bit confused.

Cheers,

Laurent

Hi,

I'm currently doing a PhD in Switzerland. Swiss legislation on the euthanasia of laboratory animals just changed. Now, euthanasia of amphibian's larvae have to be done using liquid nitrogen. My problem is that I have then to measure molecular biomarkers and I don't know if it's possible after such a euthanasia method. Does anyone already tried it, maybe on fish?

Best wishes,

Laurent

Hello,

I'm currently helping at writing a project on amphibians and the ethical commission is asking us how will we measure an emaciation of an individual according to our score-sheet. Weighing all individuals would be really time consuming and would probably stress them.

Does anybody faced this question ?

Hi everybody,

I'm wondering if someone already tried to adapt the OECD Fish Embryo Acute Toxicity Test (FET) to Xenopus laevis embryos. I'd like to test the impact of certain pesticides on X. laevis embryos development and I think it would be a good way to adapt the FET.

Cheers,

Laurent

Hi,

I'm wondering what molecular biomarkers can we get from amphibian saliva ? I'm sure we can get hormones but what else ?

Cheers,

Laurent

Hi,

Do someone knows what primer(s) I could use for barcoding bacteria and protists ?

How to deal with the small amount of plasma for measuring hormones level (testosterone and estrogen) in amphibians' eggs, larvae and post-metamorphs?