• Title/Summary/Keyword: LIZARD

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Spot the difference: Solving the puzzle of hidden pictures in the lizard genome for identification of regeneration factors

  • Chung, Jin Woong
    • BMB Reports
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    • v.49 no.5
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    • pp.249-254
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    • 2016
  • All living things share some common life processes, such as growth and reproduction, and have the ability to respond to their environment. However, each type of organism has its own specialized way of managing biological events. Genetic sequences determine phenotypic and physiological traits. Based on genetic information, comparative genomics has been used to delineate the differences and similarities between various genomes, and significant progress has been made in understanding regenerative biology by comparing the genomes of a variety of lower animal models of regeneration, such as planaria, zebra fish, and newts. However, the genome of lizards has been relatively ignored until recently, even though lizards have been studied as an excellent amniote model of tissue regeneration. Very recently, whole genome sequences of lizards have been uncovered, and several attempts have been made to find regeneration factors based on genetic information. In this article, recent advances in comparative analysis of the lizard genome are introduced, and their biological implications and putative applications for regenerative medicine and stem cell biology are discussed.

Bio-mimetic Quadruped Walking Robot with Autonomous Eating Function (자율섭취기능을 갖는 생체 모방형 4족 보행로봇)

  • Park Se-Hoon;Kim Kyung-Ho;Jung Kil-Woong;Kim Goan-Hun;Lee Yun-Jung
    • Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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    • v.12 no.4
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    • pp.320-327
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    • 2006
  • This paper introduces a new entertainment robot called ELIRO-II(Eating Lizard RObot version 2)which is a bio-mimetic quadruped walking robot with autonomous eating function. We focus on the realization of the behavior of an animal, i.e., wandering around to find food and eating food. The ELIRO-II is modeled after a lizard, which has four legs, 2-DOF waist-joint, an eye part, a mouth part and a stomach part. The effectiveness of the developed robot is shown through real experiments.

Ectoparasites: immature Japanese hard ticks (Ixodes nipponensis; Acari: Ixodidae) on Korean lizards

  • Ra, Nam-Yong;Lee, Jun-Ki;Lee, Jung-Hyun;Kim, Ja-Kyeong;Kim, Dae-In;Kim, Bin-Na;Kim, Il-Hoon;Park, Dae-Sik
    • Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.34 no.3
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    • pp.307-313
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    • 2011
  • Although lizards are important hosts for hard ticks (Ixodidae), very few studies have been conducted in South Korea. To determine whether or not hard ticks can infest lizards endemic to South Korea, we examined 77 lizards of four species (Eremias argus, Sincella vandenburghi, Takydromus amurensis, and Takydromus wolteri) that were collected at 22 different sites between April and October 2010. We confirmed that all four lizard species can be infested by Ixodes nipponensis larvae or nymphs. Of the 62 E. argus examined, we found an average of 12.5 larvae on two lizards and an average of one nymph on one lizard. We found seven nymphs on one S. vandenburghi. We found an average of two nymphs on two of the five T. amurensis and an average of one nymph on four of the nine T. wolteri. Ixodes nipponensis larvae and nymphs were found most frequently on the foreleg axillae (87.8%), followed by the forelegs (7.3%), the eyelids (2.4%), and the ears (2.4%) of the lizards. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of I. nipponensis infestations of lizards endemic to South Korea.

Endoplasmin regulates differentiation of tonsil-derived mesenchymal stem cells into chondrocytes through ERK signaling

  • Kim, Hye Ryeong;Choi, Hyeongrok;Park, Soon Yong;Song, Young-Chul;Kim, Jae-Ho;Shim, Sangin;Jun, Woojin;Kim, Kyung-Jin;Han, Jin;Chi, Seung-Wook;Leem, Sun-Hee;Chung, Jin Woong
    • BMB Reports
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    • v.55 no.5
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    • pp.226-231
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    • 2022
  • It is well-known that some species of lizard have an exceptional ability known as caudal autotomy (voluntary self-amputation of the tail) as an anti-predation mechanism. After amputation occurs, they can regenerate their new tails in a few days. The new tail section is generally shorter than the original one and is composed of cartilage rather than vertebrae bone. In addition, the skin of the regenerated tail distinctly differs from its original appearance. We performed a proteomics analysis for extracts derived from regenerating lizard tail tissues after amputation and found that endoplasmin (ENPL) was the main factor among proteins up-regulated in expression during regeneration. Thus, we performed further experiments to determine whether ENPL could induce chondrogenesis of tonsil-derived mesenchymal stem cells (T-MSCs). In this study, we found that chondrogenic differentiation was associated with an increase of ENPL expression by ER stress. We also found that ENPL was involved in chondrogenic differentiation of T-MSCs by suppressing extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation.

Sexual Size Dimorphism of Lacertid Lizards from Korea (한국산장지뱀과의 성적이형)

  • Chang, Min-Ho;Oh, Hong-Shik
    • Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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    • v.26 no.5
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    • pp.668-674
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    • 2012
  • This study was conducted to find the sexual size dimorphism(SSD) in morphometric characters of three species, Eremias argus, Takydromus amurensis and T. wolteri in lacertid lizard from Korea. Six external traits, snout-vent length, tail length, head length, head width, forelimb length and hind-limb length were focused to compare two sexes among the each three lizards. Student's t-test was used to compare the adult SVL between the sexes for each species. For the other parts of the body, a one-way analysis of covariance(ANCOVA) with SVL as the covariate was used. In all these species, males have longer tail and head than females like general lacertid lizard. In addition, male E. arugus have broader head and longer forelimbs and hind-limbs than conspecific females. Likewise, male T. wolteri have broader head than females. In the three lacertid lizards from Korea, snout-vent length did not significantly differ between the sexes. To understand the causes for SSD in SVL, ecological information, such as the presence/absence of male-male combat and the correlation between the SVL of female and litter size, is required. Therefore, further ecological study on the three species of lacertid lizard from Korea will make it possible to explain the reason SSD is not found in SVL.

Successful Management of Subcutaneous Abscess in a Captive Leopard Gecko (Eublepharis macularius)

  • Win, Phyo Wai;Rhim, Haerin;Kim, Myeongsu;Gim, Seulgi;Han, Jae-Ik
    • Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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    • v.39 no.5
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    • pp.272-276
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    • 2022
  • An 8 month old leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius) with a large nodule was referred to our hospital. During the physical examination, the nodule had an unclear boundary from the top of the left eye to the front of the left ear and prevented the opening of the left eye. A hard, cheese-like, yellow, pus-filled nodule was observed. A cytological examination of a pus swab sample revealed pyogranulomatous inflammation with rod-shaped bacteria. Ofloxacin was chosen as the empirical topical antimicrobial drug for treatment. The swab samples were inoculated in trypticase soy agar with 5% sheep blood and incubated at 37℃ for 24 h. Gram-negative bacteria were identified via Gram staining, and the Kirby-Bauer antimicrobial susceptible disk diffusion test against 24 antibiotics according to protocol M100-Ed32 of CLSI showed that the fluoroquinolone group (ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin) was susceptible to the isolated bacteria. Molecular identification based on 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing confirmed that the isolated bacteria had a 99.85% nucleotide similarity with Serratia surfactantfaciens (GenBank accession no. CP014948). After 1 week, the boundaries of the nodule became clear; thus, the abscess was physically removed by expanding the hole formed above the eye for drainage, and flushing was repeated. After another 1 week, new tissue restoration without scarring was observed. This is a rare case report of the successful management of a subcutaneous abscess and scar-free healing in a lizard.

Development of a Bio-mimetic Quadruped Walking Robot with Waist Joint

  • Kim, Dong-Sik;Park, Se-Hoon;Kim, Kyung-Ho;Lee, Yun-Jung
    • 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2004.08a
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    • pp.1530-1534
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    • 2004
  • This paper presents a novel bio-mimetic quadruped walking robot with a waist joint, which connects the front and the rear parts of the body. The new robot, called ELIRO-1(Eating LIzard RObot version 1), can bend its body while the legs is transferred, thereby increasing the stride and speed of the robot. The waist-jointed walking robot can move easily from side to side, which is an important feature to guarantee a larger gait stability margin than that of a conventional single rigid-body walking robot. We design the mechanical structure of the robot, which is small and light to have high movability and high degree of human friendship. In this paper, we describe characteristics of the waist joint and leg mechanism as well as the analysis using ADAMS to select appropriate actuators. In addition, a hardware and software of the controller of ELIRO-1 are described.

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