Search

The genus Brachionus has been the main subject of studies reported in about 1000 papers published since 1950. About three-fourths of these deal with Brachionus plicatilis and B. rotundiformis and are mainlyrelated to their use as prey for aquatic organisms. Also abundant, but to a lesser extent, are studies on B. calyciflorus, many of which are concerned with aquatic ecotoxicology. These studies constitute aninteresting interaction between fundamental and applied research. For example, advances in fundamental biology have been applied to improve the production of rotifer biomass. Alternatively, new perspectivesin fundamental research on rotifers have emerged while solving technical and biological problems related to the rearing of aquatic animallarvae. This review describes some aspects that have shown a significant advance due to such interaction between fundamental and applied research on rotifers, e.g. growth conditions, biochemical compositionand morphotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]