ORCID Profile
0000-0001-7269-9197
Current Organisation
Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2020
DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOCHI.2020.01.010
Abstract: Envenoming by snakebite is an important global health issue that has received little attention, leading the World Health Organization to naming it as neglected tropical disease. Several snakebites present serious local symptoms manifested on victims that may not be efficiently neutralized by serum therapy. Phospholipase A
Publisher: The Company of Biologists
Date: 15-06-2004
DOI: 10.1242/JEB.01041
Abstract: Amphisbaenians are legless reptiles that differ significantly from other vertebrate lineages. Most species dig underground galleries of similar diameter to that of the animal. We studied the muscle physiology and morphological attributes of digging effort in the Brazilian hisbaenid Leposternon microcephalum (Squamata Amphisbaenia), which burrows by compressing soil against the upper wall of the tunnel by means of upward strokes of the head. The in iduals tested (& g) exerted forces on the soil of up to 24 N. These forces were possible because the fibres of the longissimus dorsi, the main muscle associated with burrowing, are highly pennated, thus increasing effective muscle cross-sectional area. The muscle is characterized by a metabolic transition along its length: proximal, medial and distal fibres are fast contracting and moderately oxidative, but fibres closer to the head are richer in citrate synthase and more aerobic in nature. Distal fibres, then, might be active mainly at the final step of the compression stroke, which requires more power. For animals greater than a given diameter,the work required to compress soil increases exponentially with body diameter. Leposternon microcephalum, and probably some other highly specialized hisbaenids, are most likely constrained to small diameters and can increase muscle mass and effective muscle cross-sectional area by increasing body length, not body diameter.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 21-12-2011
Publisher: The Company of Biologists
Date: 03-2004
DOI: 10.1242/JEB.00870
Abstract: Tropidurid lizards have colonized a variety of Brazilian open environments without remarkable morphological variation, despite ecological and structural differences among habitats used. This study focuses on two Tropidurussister-species that, despite systematic proximity and similar morphology,exhibit great ecological ergence and a third ecologically generalist congeneric species providing an outgroup comparison. We quantified jumping capacity and sprint speed of each species on sand and rock to test whether ecological ergence was also accompanied by differences in locomotor performance. Relevant physiological traits possibly associated with locomotor performance – metabolic scopes and fiber type composition, power output and activity of the enzymes citrate synthase, pyruvate kinase and lactate dehydrogenase of the iliofibularis muscle – were also compared among the three Tropidurus species. We found that the two sister-species exhibited remarkable differences in jumping performance, while Tropidurus oreadicus, the more distantly related species, exhibited intermediate values. Tropidurus psamonastes, a species endemic to sand dunes,exhibited high absolute sprint speeds on sand, jumped rarely and possessed a high proportion of glycolytic fibers and low activity of citrate synthase. The sister-species Tropidurus itambere, endemic to rocky outcrops,performed a large number of jumps and achieved lower absolute sprint speed than T. psamonastes. This study provides evidence of rapid ergence of locomotor parameters between sister-species that use different substrates,which is only partially explained by variation in physiological parameters of the iliofibularis muscle.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 20-07-2015
Location: Brazil
No related grants have been discovered for Maeli Dal Pai.