Stephanie De Vos

Ghent University | UGhent · Department of Animal Production

The brine shrimp Artemia , a crustacean adapted to the extreme conditions of hypersaline environments, comprises nine regionally distributed sexual species scattered (island-like) over heterogeneous environments and asexual (parthenogenetic) lineages with different ploidies. Such sexual and asexual interaction within the genus raises questions rega...

Brine shrimp Artemia are extremophile invertebrates with unique adaptations to cope with hypersaline lakes. The genus comprises sexual species and parthenogenetic lineages with different ploidies, and populations exhibit an island biogeography dispersal model and accelerated molecular evolution due to the mutagenic effect of ionic strength variance...

The understanding of sex determination and differentiation in animals has recently made remarkable strides through the use of advanced research tools. At the gene level, the Mab-3-related transcription factor (Dmrt) gene family, which encodes for the typical DNA-binding doublesex/Mab-3 (DM) domain in their protein, is known for its contribution to...

Background Brine shrimp Artemia have an unequalled ability to endure extreme salinity and complete anoxia. This study aims to elucidate its strategies to cope with these stressors. Results and discussion Here, we present the genome of an inbred A. franciscana Kellogg, 1906. We identified 21,828 genes of which, under high salinity, 674 genes and un...

The genus Artemia Leach, 1819 is a cosmopolitan halophilic crustacean, consisting of bisexual species and obligate parthenogenetic populations. Asia is rich in Artemia biodiversity. More than 530 Artemia sites have been recorded from this area and more than 20 species/subspecies/variety names have been used for them. There exist various problems in...

Thus far, only one gene from the heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) family has been identified in Artemia franciscana. Here, we used the draft Artemia transcriptome database to search for other genes in the HSP70 family. Four novel HSP70 genes were identified and designated heat shock cognate 70 (HSC70), heat shock 70 kDa cognate 5 (HSC70-5), Immunoglob...

Cellular quiescence, a reversible state in which growth, proliferation, and other cellular activities are arrested, is important for self-renewal, differentiation, development, regeneration, and stress resistance. However, the physiological mechanisms underlying cellular quiescence remain largely unknown. In the present study, we used embryos of th...

The complete mitochondrial genome of Artemia sinica was obtained using the next-generation sequencing (NGS) method. The mitochondrial genome is a circular molecule of 15,689 bp in length, with the typical structure of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs) and 2 ribosomal RNA genes, and a non-coding control region (CR). The b...

Artemia and the RNA interference technique were used in research to explore the function of genes in crustaceans. In this study, we annotated and characterized nine putative genes involved in RNA interference in Artemia franciscana including two Dicer, three Argonauts, two dsRNA binding proteins, Drosha and Sid-1 together with evidence of Pasha and...

Habitat salinity is a major abiotic factor governing the activity, physiology, biology and distribution of aquatic animals. Salinity changes cause salt stress, affecting crustaceans reared in aquaculture both on an ecological and economic level. Current salt stress research in aquatic animals is mainly focused on salt stress in the gills at relativ...

The sex of relatively primitive animals such as invertebrates is mostly determined by environmental factors and chromosome ploidy. Heteromorphic chromosomes may also play an important role, as in the ZW system in lepidopterans. However, the mechanisms of these various sex determination systems are still largely undefined. In the present study, a Ma...

In arthropods, mature females under certain conditions produce and release encysted gastrula embryos that enter diapause, a state of obligate dormancy. The process is presumably regulated by diapause hormone (DH) and diapause hormone receptor (DHR) that were identified in the silkworm, Bombyx mori and other insects. However, the molecular structure...

The aim of this study was the construction of a genomic Artemia toolkit. Sex-specific AFLP-based genetic maps were constructed based on 433 AFLP markers segregating in a 112 full-sib family, revealing 21 male and 22 female linkage groups (2n = 42). Fifteen putatively homologous linkage groups, including the sex linkage groups, were identified betwe...

We report on the construction of sex-specific linkage maps, the identification of sex-linked markers and the genome size estimation for the brine shrimp . Overall, from the analysis of 433 AFLP markers segregating in a 112 full-sib family we identified 21 male and 22 female linkage groups (2 = 42), covering 1,041 and 1,313 cM respectively. Fifteen...

List of the 65 primer combinations used for AFLP analysis1 E: Eco RI primer with three selective bases; M: Mse I primer with three selective bases (1, 2, 3, 4 correspond to A, C, G, T). (DOC)

Sixty isolates of Rhizoctonia spp. were obtained from Cuban bean fields during the period 2004–2007. Isolates were characterized with different techniques, including nuclei staining, pectic zymogram, PCR–RFLP analysis of the rDNA–ITS region and sequencing of the rDNA–ITS region. The majority of the isolates were identified as multinucleate Rhizocto...

Brine shrimps of the genus Artemia are small planktonic crustaceans found in about 500 natural salt lakes and salterns around the world (Lavens & Sorgeloos, 1996). Artemia is the most common live food in aquaculture activities, specifically for larval growth of >85% of the marine species reared in aquaculture (Kavim et al., 2010). The aquaculture i...