High impact information on Phocoena

• The Risk of Infection from Polychlorinated Biphenyl Exposure in the Harbor Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena): A Case-Control Approach [1].
• Harbour porpoises in the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine feed primarily on Atlantic herring [2].
• Levels of the flame retardants hexabromocyclododecane and tetrabromobisphenol A in the blubber of harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) stranded or bycaught in the U.K., with evidence for an increase in HBCD concentrations in recent years [3].
• Levels of hexabromocyclododecane in harbor porpoises and common dolphins from western European seas, with evidence for stereoisomer-specific biotransformation by cytochrome p450 [4].
• Levels and enantiomeric signatures of methyl sulfonyl PCB and DDE metabolites in livers of harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) from the Southern North Sea [5].

Associations of Phocoena with chemical compounds

• A harbour porpoise (Phocoena) seemed also able to metabolize chlorobiphenyl congeners with vicinal hydrogen atoms in the meta and para positions and two ortho-Cl atoms [6].
• This study gives evidence of the importance of biomagnification of butyltin in harbour porpoises and, to a lesser extent, in fish and birds [7].
• Relatively high concentrations of DBT, TBT and MBT were observed in muscle, kidney and liver from harbour porpoises caught in northern Norway in 1988, just before restrictions on the use of tributyltin (TBT)(mainly on small boats) were introduced in several European countries [8].
• Individual chlorinated biphenyls (CBs) and chlorinated pesticides (p,p'-DDT and metabolites, HCHs and HCB) were determined in blubber samples of 40 harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) of different age and sex from the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and Greenland coastal waters [9].
• Here results from analysis of tributyltin (TBT), dibutyltin (DBT), monobutyltin (MBT), triphenyltin (TPhT), diphenyltin (DPhT) and monophenyltin (MPhT) in harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), common seal (Phoca vitulina), ringed seal (Phoca hispida) and glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus) from Norwegian territory are presented [8].

Gene context of Phocoena

• A polyphasic taxonomic study was performed on two strains of an unknown Gram-positive, catalase-negative, coccus-shaped bacterium isolated from a dead seal and a harbour porpoise [10].
• Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences support a close relationship between Burmeister's porpoise, Phocoena spinipinnis, and the vaquita, Phocoena sinus, and the association of these two species with the spectacled porpoise, Australophocaena dioptrica [11].
• CB pattern in the harbour porpoise: bioaccumulation, metabolism and evidence for cytochrome P450 IIB activity [12].
• In this way, activity of PB-type isozymes of the P450 monooxygenase system was apparent: in contrast to existing literature data, harbour porpoise appears to be able to metabolize congeners with m,p vic [12].
• Differences in both levels and ratios of organochlorine compounds were detected in different species of marine mammals living in the same region, e.g. blubber of harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) accumulated significantly lower levels of lindane, HCB, toxaphene, and DDT and its metabolites than harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) [13].

References