The myostatin (MSTN) gene is important because of its role in regulation of skeletal muscle growth in all vertebrates. In this study, CRISPR/Cas9 was utilized to successfully target the channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, muscle suppressor gene MSTN. CRISPR/Cas9 induced high rates (88–100%) of mutagenesis in the target protein-encoding sites of MSTN. MSTN-edited fry had more muscle cells (p < 0.001) than controls, and the mean body weight of gene-edited fry increased by 29.7%. The nucleic acid alignment of the mutated sequences against the wild-type sequence revealed multiple insertions and deletions. These results demonstrate that CRISPR/Cas9 is a highly efficient tool for editing the channel catfish genome, and opens ways for facilitating channel catfish genetic enhancement and functional genomics. This approach may produce growth-enhanced channel catfish and increase productivity.

The present study was carried out on ten adult, apparently healthy cattle egrets of different ages and sexes. Each bird was exsanguinated and the descending aorta was cannulated and flushed with warm normal saline solution (0.9%), then injected with red colored gum milk latex. The origin, course and distribution of the celiac artery were described. The celiac artery erupted from the right face of the descending aorta opposite to the 4 th or 5 th vertebral rib, on a level with the junction of the esophagus and the proventriculus. It gave off the Aa. esophageales, A. proventricularis dorsalis, Aa. lienales, and A. hepatica, then bifurcated into left and right branches. The left branch of the celiac artery gave off A. proventricularis ventralis and A.gastrica ventralis then continued as the A.gastrica sinistra. The right branch of the celiac artery released the Aa. Ileoce-cales, Rr. succi, A. gastroduodenalis, A. gastrica dextra then continued as A. pancreaticoduodenalis.

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Skull of the domestic rabbitFarag et al.

The capability of Phasmarhabditis tawfiki Azzam to control the snails Eobania vermiculata (Müller) and Theba pisana (Müller) and the insect larvae of Agrotis ipsilon (Hüfngel) and Spodoptera littoralis (Boisd.) was investigated under greenhouse conditions, using three types of soils (clay, mixture of sand and clay, and sand), using an infective dose of about 200 I.S per snail or larva for four weeks .The mortality rate of Eobania vermiculata (Müller), Theba pisana (Müller), Agrotis ipsilon (Hüf.) and Spodoptera littoralis (Boisd.) exposed to infection with P. tawfiki was 88.94, 83.75, 93.75 and 71.25 %, respectively in the clay soil. In the mixture of sand and clay soil, these rates were 67.5, 72.5, 70 and 60 % ,while in the sand soil they recorded, 53.75, 63.75, 62.5 and 52.5 %, respectively.The highest number of recovered nematodes (14579.09 I.S./snail) was reported for the snail E. vermiculata infected in the clay soil. Reversely, the lowest number(2560 I.S./larva) was associated with larvae S. littoralis in the sandy soil. T. pisana and A. ipsilon recorded 9807.17 I.S./snail and 6803.28 I.S./ larva respectively in the clay soil.Rates of individuals recovered nematodes in the clay soil were 89.94, 85.04, 82.79 and 79.01 % for E. vermiculata, T. pisana, A. ipsilon and S. littoralis, respectively.

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