Effects of backwashing on the prosobranch snail Potamopyrgus jenkinsi Smith in granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorbers.

Granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorbers are often the penultimate stage of surface water treatment and provide ideal habitats for invertebrates. Proliferation of chlorine-resistant invertebrates in GAC adsorbers may lead to their efflux into distribution systems, possibly resulting in contamination of customers' tap water. GAC adsorber sampling and laboratory experiments were undertaken to determine the effects of routine backwashing on GAC adsorber populations of the chlorine-resistant snail Potamopyrgus jenkinsi at a water treatment works. GAC adsorber sampling results suggested that routine backwashing altered the spatial distribution of snails, but not their overall abundance. In small-scale glass columns 40-50% of the smallest (0.3-0.6 mm shell height) juvenile snails were removed by a GAC backwash bed expansion of 30-40%; however, bed expansions of greater than 20% were not possible in the GAC adsorbers.

Use of aphid stylectomy and RT-PCR for the detection of transporter mRNAs in sieve elements.

Unmodified samples of barley (Hordeum vulgare) sieve tube sap have been obtained by severing the stylets (stylectomy) of feeding aphids and collecting the exuding liquid. Primers were designed to direct the amplification of a series of specific cDNAs encoding barley proteins selected because of their significance in sieve tube function. mRNA encoding the H(+)/sucrose co-transporter SUT1, a putative aquaporin and the H(+)/ATPase PPA1 were detected in sieve tube sap. These mRNA species appear to be present at very low concentrations. mRNA encoding the potassium transporter HAK1 could not be detected. The results strongly suggest that some mRNA species are imported into sieve elements, which are enucleate, from neighbouring companion cells.