1996 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Key models in phylogeny and neurobiology of Onychophora
| Project/Area Number |
08041154
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for international Scientific Research
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | Field Research |
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| Research Institution | TOKYO METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY |
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Principal Investigator |
YAMASAKI Tsukane Tokyo Metropolitan University, Faculty of Science, Professor., 理学部, 教授 (90008714)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KUROKAWA Makoto Tokyo Metropolitan University, Faculty of Science, Assistant, 理学部, 助手 (50211222)
YAZAWA Tohru Tokyo Metropolitan University, Faculty of Science, Assistant, 理学部, 助手 (30106603)
KOBAYASHI Yukimasa Tokyo Metropolitan University, Faculty of Science, Assistant Professor., 理学部, 助教授 (60049856)
AIHARA Yasutsugu Tokyo Metropolitan University, Faculty of Science, Professor., 理学部, 教授 (70091874)
KUWASAWA Kiyoaki Tokyo Metropolitan University, Faculty of Science, Professor., 理学部, 教授 (10015589)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1996
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| Keywords | Onychophora / Phylogeny / Neurobiology / Puerto Rico / Trinidad / Jamaica / Dominican Republic |
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| Research Abstract |
The major purposes of our project are to obtain appropriate materials of peripatus species (Onychophora) for a phylogenetic analysis and to make suitable strains for a neurobiological analysis.
The most of places for them to have been collected in the reports are located in the Carribean and C.and S.American countries, so that this time we explored countries in the Carribean Sea such as Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica and Dominican Republic.
We have first visited Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Trinidad & Tobago in 1996 and then Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Dominican Republic in 1997. Puerto Rico and Trinidad & Tobago have some good places to collect the animals, but this time they were not found in these islands, while in Jamaica, some ten materials for a particular species of peripatus were obtained from areas in the Blue Mountains. Dominican Republic (the central and eastern parts of Hispaniola) had been also supposed to have good places for collecting the animals, but we did not see the fruits of our labor. In future, our surveys should be also carried out in C.and S.America to have smple materials, to study them comparatively and to breed them in laboratory insectaria.
Based on the materials obtained in this year, nerophysiological preliminary experiments were carried out. The result showed that, in the central and peripheral nervous systems of the Onychophora, there are immunoreactive neurons or neuronal processes to anti-FMRFamide-like antibody. The presence of the immunoreactive neurons is first reported in the Onychophora, although it is observed in species of Mollusca and Arthropoda.
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