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Role of huge geometric circular structures in the reproduction of a marine pufferfish.

ABSTRACT: We report that male pufferfishes (Torquigener sp., Tetraodontidae) constructed large geometric circular structures on the seabed that played an important role in female mate choice. Males dug valleys at various angles in a radial direction, constructing nests surrounded by radially aligned peaks and valleys. Furthermore, they created irregular patterns in the nest comprising fine sand particles. The circular structure not only influences female mate choice but also functions to gather fine sand particles in nests, which are important in female mate choice. Strangely enough, the males never reuse the nest, always constructing a new circular structure at the huge cost of construction. This is because the valleys may not contain sufficient fine sand particles for multiple reproductive cycles.

SUBMITTER: Kawase H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3696902 | biostudies-other | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Role of huge geometric circular structures in the reproduction of a marine pufferfish.

Kawase Hiroshi H Okata Yoji Y Ito Kimiaki K

Scientific reports 20130101

We report that male pufferfishes (Torquigener sp., Tetraodontidae) constructed large geometric circular structures on the seabed that played an important role in female mate choice. Males dug valleys at various angles in a radial direction, constructing nests surrounded by radially aligned peaks and valleys. Furthermore, they created irregular patterns in the nest comprising fine sand particles. The circular structure not only influences female mate choice but also functions to gather fine sand ...[more]

PMID: 23811799

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Project description:The active-site structures of the oxidized and reduced forms of manganese-substituted iron superoxide dismutase (Mn(Fe)SOD) are examined, for the first time, using a combination of spectroscopic and computational methods. On the basis of electronic absorption, circular dichroism (CD), magnetic CD (MCD), and variable-temperature variable-field MCD data obtained for oxidized Mn(Fe)SOD, we propose that the active site of this species is virtually identical to that of wild-type manganese SOD (MnSOD), with both containing a metal ion that resides in a trigonal bipyramidal ligand environment. This proposal is corroborated by quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) computations performed on complete protein models of Mn(Fe)SOD in both its oxidized and reduced states and, for comparison, wild-type (WT) MnSOD. The major differences between the QM/MM optimized active sites of WT MnSOD and Mn(Fe)SOD are a smaller (His)N-Mn-N(His) equatorial angle and a longer (Gln146(69))NH···O(sol) H-bond distance in the metal-substituted protein. Importantly, these modest geometric differences are consistent with our spectroscopic data obtained for the oxidized proteins and high-field electron paramagnetic resonance spectra reported previously for reduced Mn(Fe)SOD and MnSOD. As Mn(Fe)SOD exhibits a reduction midpoint potential (E(m)) almost 700 mV higher than that of MnSOD, which has been shown to be sufficient for explaining the lack of SOD activity displayed by the metal-subtituted species (Vance, C. K.; Miller, A. F. Biochemistry 2001, 40, 13079-13087), E(m)'s were computed for our experimentally validated QM/MM optimized models of Mn(Fe)SOD and MnSOD. These computations properly reproduce the experimental trend and reveal that the drastically elevated E(m) of the metal substituted protein stems from a larger separation between the second-sphere Gln residue and the coordinated solvent in Mn(Fe)SOD relative to MnSOD, which causes a weakening of the corresponding H-bond interaction in the oxidized state and alleviates steric crowding in the reduced state.

Dataset Information

Role of huge geometric circular structures in the reproduction of a marine pufferfish.

Publications

Role of huge geometric circular structures in the reproduction of a marine pufferfish.

Similar Datasets

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