Geology topics

Scott B. Brown

Publications and source records attributed to Scott B. Brown.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2010

Variation in Lake Michigan alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) thiaminase and fatty acids composition

Thiaminase activity of alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) is variable across Lake Michigan, yet factors that contribute to the variability in alewife thiaminase activity are unknown. The fatty acid content of Lake Michigan alewife has not been previously reported. Analysis of 53 Lake Michigan alewives found a positive correlation between thiaminase activity and the following fatty acid: C22:ln9, sum of omega-6 fatty acids (Sw6), and sum of the polyunsaturated fatty acids. Thiaminase activity was negatively correlated with C15:0, C16:0, C17:0, C18:0, C20:0, C22:0, C24:0, C18:ln9t, C20:3n3, C22:2, and the sum of all saturated fatty acids (SAFA). Multi-variant regression analysis resulted in three variables (C18:ln9t, Sw6, SAFA) that explained 71% (R 2 =0.71, P<0.0001) of the variation in thiaminase activity. Because the fatty acid content of an organism is related is food source, diet may be an important factor modulating alewife thiaminase activity. These data suggest there is an association between fatty acids and thiaminase activity in Lake Michigan alewife.

Lake Michigan↗

USGS2009

Influence of thiamine deficiency on Lake Trout larval growth, foraging, and predator avoidance

Diet‐related thiamine deficiency increases the acute mortality, known as early mortality syndrome, of salmonines from some of the Great Lakes. The consequences of thiamine deficiency as measured at the egg stage for other important early life stage processes like growth, foraging efficiency, and predator avoidance that may also result in mortality, are unknown. Accordingly, we investigated the impacts of low thiamine on the specific growth rate (SGR) of first‐feeding fry, the ability of first‐feeding fry to capture Daphnia , fry emergence in the presence of a potential predator (round goby Apollina (formerly Neogobius ) melanostomus ), and predation by slimy sculpin Cottus cognatus . We used a combination of thiamine‐deficient and thiamine‐replete wild stocks of lake trout Salvelinus namaycush for this purpose. From these investigations we developed predictive relationships. Specific growth rate was related to egg thiamine concentration. From the exponential relationship, it was predicted that the threshold egg thiamine concentrations associated with 20% and 50% reductions in SGR are 8.1 and 5.1 nmol/g, respectively. The foraging rate on Daphnia was also related to egg thiamine concentration by an exponential relationship. It was predicted that the threshold concentrations associated with 20% and 50% reductions in this rate are 6.9 and 2.9 nmol/g, respectively. The presence of a round goby significantly reduced emergence success, but the level of goby predation was unrelated to egg thiamine concentration. Sculpin predation was related, although weakly, to the initial egg thiamine concentration. This research found that thiamine deficiency affected growth, foraging, and predator avoidance in lake trout fry. Growth effects resulting from thiamine deficiency may represent the most sensitive means of monitoring the impact of the secondary consequences of thiamine deficiency. Mortality associated with the combined effects of reduced growth and foraging has the potential to seriously impair lake trout recruitment.

Journal of Aquatic Animal Health↗

USGS2009

Thiamine deficiency effects on the vision and foraging ability of lake trout fry

The exact causes of the historical recruitment failures of Great Lakes lake trout Salvelinus namaycush are unknown. Thiamine deficiency has been associated with neurological abnormalities in lake trout that lead to early mortality syndrome (EMS) in salmonine swim-up fry, and EMS-related mortality at the swim-up stage is a factor that contributes to the reproductive failure of lake trout populations in the Great Lakes. The potential for adverse effects of thiamine deficiency beyond the swim-up stage is unknown. We investigated the effects of low egg thiamine on behavioral functions in young, post-swim-up lake trout fry. The behavioral endpoints included visual acuity and prey capture rates in the same groups of lake trout fry from each family. Low-thiamine eggs were produced by feeding lake trout broodstock diets entailing thiaminase activity. The thiamine content of the spawned eggs ranged from 0.3 to 26.1 nmol/g. Both visual acuity and prey capture rates were affected by the thiamine content of the eggs. The visual acuity of lake trout was severely affected by low egg thiamine, mainly at thiamine concentrations below the threshold of 0.8 nmol/g but also at higher concentrations in field-collected eggs. Feeding was also reduced with low egg thiamine content. The reduction of prey capture rates was dramatic below 0.8 nmol/g and less dramatic, but still significant, in a portion of the families with egg thiamine concentrations of less than 5.0 nmol/g from both laboratory and field samples. Approximately one-third of the latter families had reduced feeding rates. Deficits in visual acuity may be part of the mechanism leading to decreased feeding rates in these fry. The effects of low egg thiamine on both of the behavioral endpoints studied increase the risk of low recruitment rates in Great Lakes lake trout populations.

Journal of Aquatic Animal Health↗

USGS2005

A rapid solid-phase extraction fluorometric method for thiamine and riboflavin in salmonid eggs

A new method has been developed and successfully applied to the selective measurement of thiamine (nonphosphorylated), total thiamine (sum of thiamine, thiamine monophosphate [TMP], thiamine diphosphate [TDP], and thiamine triphosphate [TTP]), and potentially interfering riboflavin in acidic (2% trichloroacetic acid) extracts of selected salmonid and walleye egg samples. Acidic extracts of eggs were applied directly to end-capped C18, reversed-phase solid-phase extraction (SPE) columns and separated into three fractions by elution with mixtures of PO4 buffer (pH 2), methanol (10%), and acetonitrile (20%). All thiamine compounds recovered in the first two fractions were oxidized to their corresponding thiochromes with alkaline potassium hexacyanoferrate, and we measured the thiochrome fluorescence (excitation at 360 nm, emission at 460 nm) in a 96-well microplate reader. Riboflavin, recovered in third fraction (eluted with pH 2, 20% acetonitrile), was analyzed directly by measuring the fluorescence of this fraction (excitation at 450 nm, emission at 530 nm). Significant portions of the phosphate esters of thiamine (TMP, TDP, and presumably TTP), when present at low concentrations (< 10 nmol of total -thiamine per gram of egg), were not retained by the 100-mg SPE column, and were collected directly during sample loading and in a subsequent phosphoric acid rinse as fraction 1. Free thiamine (nonphosphorylated) and remaining portions of the TDP and TMP were then eluted in the second fraction with 10% methanol/PO4 buffer, whereas the un-ionized, relatively nonpolar riboflavin was eluted in the third fraction with 20% acetonitrile. This new method uses a traditional sample homogenization of egg tissue to extract thiamine compounds into 2% trichlororacetic acid solution; an inexpensive, commercially available SPE column; small amounts of sample (0.5-1 g); microliter volumes of solvents per sample; a traditional, relatively nonhazardous, oxidation of thiamine compounds to fluorescent thiochromes; and an ultraviolet-visible-wavelength-filter fluorometer for the measurements. ?? Copyright by the American Fisheries Society 2005.

Journal of Aquatic Animal Health↗

USGS2005

A method for measuring total thiaminase activity in fish tissues

An accurate, quantitative, and rapid method for the measurement of thiaminase activity in fish samples is required to provide sufficient information to characterize the role of dietary thiaminase in the onset of thiamine deficiency in Great Lakes salmonines. A radiometric method that uses 14C-thiamine was optimized for substrate and co-substrate (nicotinic acid) concentrations, incubation time, and sample dilution. Total thiaminase activity was successfully determined in extracts of selected Great Lakes fishes and invertebrates. Samples included whole-body and selected tissues of forage fishes. Positive control material prepared from frozen alewives Alosa pseudoharengus collected in Lake Michigan enhanced the development and application of the method. The method allowed improved discrimination of thiaminolytic activity among forage fish species and their tissues. The temperature dependence of the thiaminase activity observed in crude extracts of Lake Michigan alewives followed a Q10 = 2 relationship for the 1-37??C temperature range, which is consistent with the bacterial-derived thiaminase I protein. ?? Copyright by the American Fisheries Society 2005.

Journal of Aquatic Animal Health↗

USGS2005

Early mortality syndrome in Great Lakes salmonines

Early mortality syndrome (EMS) is the termused to describe an embryonic mortality affectingthe offspring of salmonines (coho salmonOnco-rhynchus kisutch, Chinook salmonOncorhynchustshawytscha, steelhead [anadromous rainbow troutOncorhynchus mykiss], brown troutSalmo trutta,and lake trout,Salvelinus namaycush) in LakesMichigan and Ontario and, to a lesser extent, LakesHuron and Erie (Marcquenski and Brown 1997).Clinical signs of EMS include loss of equilibrium,a spiral swimming pattern, lethargy, hyperexcit-ability, hemorrhage, and death between hatch andfirst feeding. Early mortality syndrome was ob-served as far back as the 1960s in Great Lakessalmonines (Marcquenski and Brown 1997; Fitz-simons et al. 1999) and is of concern because mor-tality has been high in recent years (Wolgamoodet al. 2005; all 2005 citations are this issue). Stocksof Atlantic salmonSalmo salarfrom the FingerLakes and the Baltic Sea also exhibit a similarearly life stage mortality, called Cayuga syndrome(Fisher et al. 1995) and M74 (Bo ̈ rjeson and Norr-gren 1997), respectively. Low egg thiamine levelsand enhanced survival following thiamine treat-ments are common characteristics of EMS, CayugaSyndrome, and M74 (Fitzsimons et al. 1999). Be-cause the deficiency does not appear to be the re-sult of inadequate dietary thiamine (Fitzsimons and Brown 1998), investigators have hypothesizedthat the presence of some thiaminolytic factors inthe diet may reduce the bioavailability of thiamine,either by destroying it or converting it to an in-active analog or thiamine antagonist (Fisher et al.1996; Fitzsimons et al. 1999).

Journal of Aquatic Animal Health↗

USGS2005

Implications of thiamine deficiency in Great Lakes salmonines

Our recent experimental work and ecoepizootiological assessments provide mechanistic data supporting a plausible hypothesis for an association between a prey base comprised of a large biomass of nonnative alewives Alosa pseudoharengus and the recruitment difficulties currently experienced by Great Lakes salmonines. We hypothesize that the thiamine deficiency induced by alewives, a species harboring high thiaminase activity, represents an ongoing cause of fry and adult mortality in salmonines. Overall ramifications of the thiamine deficiency on recruitment have not been firmly established but may represent a substantial bottleneck for natural recruitment in feral salmonine populations in the Great Lakes.

Journal of Aquatic Animal Health↗