云南塔城滇金丝猴掘食行为的初步研究

2006年3月至2007年5月,我们对云南塔城一个滇金丝猴群进行了连续跟踪,旨在调查其生境利用情况.在此期间,我们发现滇金丝猴在地面有掘土行为.通过照片分析,发现滇金丝猴的这种掘食行为旨在获取某种植物地下球茎.后分别在两个地点采用焦点动物行为记录法对这种掘食行为进行了记录.通过比较单次掘食行为的持续时间、掘食行为的发生频次以及掘取成功率,我们发现这些指标在不同年龄-性别组个体间的差异明显.成年雄猴的成功率明显高于其它两组;在单次掘食行为的时间花费上,成年雄猴和雌猴之间无差别,而亚成年个体表现为用时短和变换挖掘地点频繁的特点.就雄猴而言,成年有助于掘食成功.同时发现,带新生仔的雌猴也会下地采掘,但尚无成功采食纪录.进食植物球茎的过程中未发现分享块茎行为,但有抢食表现.     

神农架川金丝猴投食群的母婴关系

灵长类动物母亲的育婴行为不仅对后代的存活起着关键作用,而且对婴猴的发育和成年后的社会交往有着重大影响,因此母-婴关系一直是灵长类学研究的热点之一。为了解川金丝猴的母-婴关系,探讨川金丝猴母-婴关系个体差异的影响因素,我们于2013年3月至2014年10月,以母-婴间相对距离表示照料强度,对神农架川金丝猴的母-婴照料关系以及母亲照料强度个体差异的影响因素进行了定量研究。结果表明：母亲照料行为强度、母亲对阿姨行为的容忍与婴猴年龄相关,限制行为与婴猴年龄不相关。身体接触与婴猴年龄不相关;腹部接触以及母-婴相对距离小于1 m与婴猴年龄呈负相关;相对距离1 m至5 m、相对距离5 m至10 m和相对距离大于10 m与婴猴年龄呈正相关;母亲对阿姨行为的拒绝与婴猴年龄呈负相关;母亲对婴猴的限制行为与年龄不相关。总的来说,即随着婴猴成长,母婴间距离越来越远,母亲也逐渐减少对婴猴的保护。母亲的生育经验、婴猴性别、婴猴出生先后和社会单元大小对神农架川金丝猴母婴关系没有显著影响,补食群丰富的食物资源和群内雌性友好的关系可能是导致本结果的原因。     

中国怒江片马地区怒江金丝猴种群动态及社会组织初探

2011 年10 月至2013 年10 月在云南高黎贡山自然保护区泸水县片马镇地区对一群怒江金丝猴的社会组织进行研究,基于野外实地记录与获得的视频资料统计猴群的个体数量,研究群数量初步估计为100 只。根据体型、毛色及是否携带婴猴等特征来划分所有个体的性别年龄组,依据单元内个体通过林窗时移动的时间间隔比单元间短的原则来划分不同繁殖单元及全雄群。所有视频中共发现22 个一雄多雌单元(OMU) 和1 个全雄群(AMU),因此怒江金丝猴的社会组织与其他金丝猴物种相似,由多个一雄多雌及其后代组成繁殖单元(OMUs)与雄性个体组成全雄群(AMU)组成重层社(Modular society);另外基于GPS 位点初步确定猴群活动的海拔范围为1 900 - 3 700 m,猴群生境面积约为12 km² ,初步获得猴群的密度为8 只/ km² ,比缅甸的种群密度(1 只/ km² )大得多。基于种群性别年龄计算种群动态参数,雄雌比为1∶ 2.1, 婴雌比为1∶ 4. 7,成幼比为2.5∶ 1。与滇金丝猴种群相比,该种群有很低的婴雌比和很高的成幼比。     

云岭保护区拉沙山滇金丝猴断奶与照料行为

灵长类婴幼儿断奶是个体生命的重要过程,即标志着婴幼猴能独立获取营养,也体现雌性繁殖调控和特定环境下物种断奶行为的适应机制。为了解滇金丝猴(Rhinopithecus bieti)婴幼猴断奶过程及影响因素,于2008年5月至2010年4月,以云岭省级自然保护区拉沙山滇金丝猴种群为研究对象,采用10 min间隔的瞬时扫描取样法,收集了拉沙山猴群1～26月龄婴幼猴的活动时间分配,及成年个体对婴幼猴的照料(携带和空间距离)数据,并依据婴幼猴行为发育和成年个体照料来判定断奶时间节点。活动时间分配中,婴幼猴1～12月龄期间,成年雌性身体接触照料平均时间为49.59%(携带为47.07%),婴幼猴取食时间为8.45%,给其他个体理毛时间为0.09%;13～17月龄,成年雌性接触照料婴幼猴时间为19.62%(携带为4.74%),而婴幼猴取食时间为22.06%,给其他个体理毛时间为0.96%;18～26月龄,成年雌性接触照料婴幼猴时间为17.18%(携带为0.82%),而婴幼猴取食时间为38.48%,给其他个体理毛时间为1.39%。基于婴幼猴行为发育和成年雌性照料减少判断婴幼猴自13月龄开始断奶,17月龄结束;断奶期处于主要食物丰富度和可获得性高的季节,利于提高婴幼猴成活率和成年雌性身体恢复。因此,拉沙山滇金丝猴婴幼猴断奶主要受成年雌性照料与食物可获得性的调控。     

川金丝猴非母亲照料行为的影响因素及其母亲获益——以神农架川金丝猴投食群为例

灵长类社会中存在着非母亲成员（成年雌猴、青少年猴和成年雄猴）对婴儿的照料行为,即非母亲照料行为,该行为直接影响新生婴儿的存活与发育以及婴儿母亲的日常活动,是灵长类学研究领域的热点问题。本研究于2019年3月至2019年11月,采用焦点动物取样和瞬时扫描取样,探究了川金丝猴非母亲照料行为的影响因素及其对母亲活动分配的影响。结果表明：非母亲照料行为时长与婴猴月龄呈负相关;非母亲照料行为与照料者性别和生育经验有关,与婴猴性别和出生先后无关;当非母亲照料婴猴时,母亲的取食和理毛时长明显增加。研究结果支持学习育幼假说和母亲压力缓解假说,非母亲成员积极照料婴猴既能学习到育幼经验,又能帮助母亲获得更多取食时间,满足母亲的清洁和社交需求。     

岷山山系川金丝猴群的社会结构——以唐家河国家级自然保护区川金丝猴为例

为进一步深入理解不同地理区域川金丝猴群的社会结构特点,于2014年3—7月,采用焦点动物取样法对岷山山系唐家河国家级自然保护区辅助投食成功的一个川金丝猴群进行了观察。研究表明:该猴群共有138只个体,包括16只成年雄性,48只成年雌性,11只亚成年雌性,3只亚成年雄性,36只青少年猴以及24只婴幼猴;猴群中成年个体与未成年个体的比例为0.86∶1。唐家河川金丝猴群具有典型的重层社会结构:即由11个一雄多雌单元(one-male units,OMUs)组成2个繁殖分队(breeding band),并分别与1个密切联系的全雄单元(all-male unit,AMU)共同构成。其中,每个OMU分别由6~15只个体组成,平均为10.64只±2.77只;AMU共21只个体,以青少年个体最多,占61.9%。方差分析表明:2个繁殖分队中的OMU大小差异无统计学意义(P>0.05)。     

金丝猴属的DNA序列变异及进化与保护遗传学研究

金丝猴的分类及系统发育存在许多争议。本文测定了２只川金丝猴、８只滇金丝猴、１只越南金丝猴和１只灰叶猴的２５３ｂｐ的线粒体细胞色素ｂ基因的序列。其中４７个位点（１９％）检出变异。我们采用简约法、最大似然法和距离法构建了一系列的分子系统树,得到相同的拓扑结构,从而可能在分子水平澄清了金丝猴属的系统发育。结果表明,云南金丝猴与越南金丝猴间的关系较与川金丝猴的为近。金丝猴属的分化大约发生在２～６百万年以前。这３种金丝猴均是独立的种,且都应归入金丝猴属。对８只来自野外的滇金丝猴（其中包括了昆明动物研究所圈养群体的所有６只创立者）的非损伤性遗传分析提示,编号为ＹＫ２的母猴是维持该圈养群体遗传多样性的关键猴。我们建立的这种非损伤性遗传分析方法广泛适用于珍稀濒危动物的遗传多样性及遗传管理研究。     

滇金丝猴现状及研究进展

野外滇金丝猴目前仅存于金沙江和澜沧江间云岭山脉的一个狭小区域,种群大小约1 700只左右.面临着栖息地高度破碎化、较为猖狂的盗猎活动和日益严重的放牧干扰等问题.分子遗传学和形态学数据都充分证明,滇金丝猴是独立的种.生态学研究表明,滇金丝猴的食性存在季节性差异,其某种程度上的海拔迁移是食物的空间分布和温度相互作用的结果.种群遗传学研究进一步表明,滇金丝猴的遗传多样性比较贫乏,个体间的遗传距离P平均仅为 0.052.建议保护区管理部门根据实际情况尽快建立生态走廊,以促进滇金丝猴的遗传稳定性和多样性.     

滇金丝猴的随机扩增多态DNA与遗传多样性分析

对6只笼养滇金丝猴(Rhinopithecus bieti)进行了随机扩增多态DNA(RAPD)及遗传多样性分析.用45个10bp随机短引物对每只滇金丝猴的基因组DNA进行了扩增,平均每个个体观察到的RAPD标记约为130个左右,单个引物获得的标记在1～7个之间.80%的RAPD标记表现为无多态的单型性.个体间的遗传距离为0.052,表明笼养滇金丝猴群体的遗传多样性很低.此研究结果与在蛋白多态研究中得到的一致.贫乏的遗传多样性一方面使目前处于濒危境地的滇金丝猴生存情况更加危险,同时其本身也可能是造成目前滇金丝猴濒危的原因之一.另外,通过成对的遗传距离分析,构建了这一群滇金丝猴的谱系关系图,提出了让遗传距离较远的个体间进行交配的笼养繁育计划.     

秦岭川金丝猴个体间团抱模式及其影响因素

团抱行为作为保持体温与增进社会关系的一种有效途经在非人灵长类中广泛存在,受环境和社会因素影响在各物种间呈现出多样的模式。本研究自2007 年9 月至2008 年4 月间,运用焦点动物取样法和瞬时扫描取样法对秦岭北坡周至国家级自然保护区内的一群秦岭川金丝猴的团抱模式进行了1 637 回次的扫描,结果表明研究群内的个体回避单独休息,倾向于形成团抱,团抱主要发生在2 个或3 个个体之间,较少形成4 个或4 个以上个体的团抱;团抱主要由青少年个体和成年雌性组成,成年雄性和携婴雌性多参与小的团抱,青少年猴更频繁地出现在3 个个体的团抱中,未携婴雌性在4 个和4 个以上个体团抱中比例明显增加;秦岭川金丝猴各年龄性别组的个体对团抱伙伴的选择有各自的偏好,大多数团抱由成年雄性和未成年个体发起,但获得较少的团抱;雌性和携婴雌性较少主动发出但获得较多的团抱,这显示出雌性作为团抱的主体具有很高的社会亲和力;此外团抱模式还存在季节性的变化,冬季寒冷期团抱的频率和大小都会增加,并且个体选择在距离地面较近的区域团抱以保持体温,春季生育期个体倾向于在树冠层团抱以获得新鲜的食物并且避免婴猴被捕食。秦岭川金丝猴的团抱行为是物种在其独特的社会组织形式下对山地极端环境的一种适应,在进化中以行为模式获得更高适合度的具体策略。     

A Unique Protease Cleavage Site Predicted in the Spike Protein of the Novel Pneumonia Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Potentially Related to Viral Transmissibility

正Dear Editor,In December 2019, a novel human coronavirus caused an epidemic of severe pneumonia(Coronavirus Disease 2019,COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei, China(Wu et al. 2020; Zhu et al. 2020). So far, this virus has spread to all areas of China and even to other countries. The epidemic has caused 67,102 confirmed infections with 1526 fatal cases     

Curcuminoids as inhibitors of thioredoxin reductase: A receptor based pharmacophore study with distance mapping of the active site

Curcumin is the yellow pigment of turmeric that interacts irreversibly forming an adduct with thioredoxin reductase (TrxR), an enzyme responsible for redox control of cell and defence against oxidative stress. Docking at both the active sites of TrxR was performed to compare the potency of three naturally occurring curcuminoids, namely curcumin, demethoxy curcumin and bis-demethoxy curcumin. Results show that active sites of TrxR occur at the junction of E and F chains. Volume and area of both cavities is predicted. It has been concluded by distance mapping of the most active conformations that Se atom of catalytic residue SeCYS498, is at a distance of 3.56 from C13 of demethoxy curcumin at the E chain active site, whereas C13 carbon atom forms adduct with Se atom of SeCys 498. We report that at least one methoxy group in curcuminoids is necessary for interation with catalytic residues of thioredoxin. Pharmacophore of both active sites of the TrxR receptor for curcumin and demethoxy curcumin molecules has been drawn and proposed for design and synthesis of most probable potent antiproliferative synthetic drugs.     

Comparative morphology of the carpel in the Liliaceae: Hewardieae, Petrosavieae, and Tricyrteae

The young pistils in the melanthioid tribes, Hewardieae, Petrosavieae and Tricyrteae, are uniformly tricarpellate and syncarpous. They lack raphide idioblasts. All are multiovulate, with bitegmic ovules. The Petrosavieae are marked by the presence of septal glands and incomplete syncarpy. Tepals and stamens adhere to the ovary in the Hewardieae and the Petrosavieae but not in the Tricyrteae. Two vascular bundles occur in the stamens of the Hewartlieae and Tricyrtis latifolia. Ventral bundles in the upper part of the ovary of the Hewardieae are continuous with compound septal bundles and placental bundles in the lower part. Putative ventral bundles occur in the alternate position in the Tricyrteae and putative placental bundles in the opposite. position in the Petrosavieae. The dichtomously branched stigma in each carpel of the Tricyrteae is supplied by a bifurcated dorsal bundle.     

Enterovirus 71 3C proteolytically processes the histone H3 N-terminal tail during infection

Highlights
1. The N-terminal tail of histone H3 is specifically cleaved during EV71 infection.
2. Viral protease 3C is identified as a protease responsible for proteolytically processing the N-terminal H3 tail.
3. Our finding reveals a new epigenetic regulatory mechanism for Enterovirus 71 in virus-host interactions.     

Detection of EBV and HHV6 in the Brain Tissue of Patients with Rasmussen’s Encephalitis

Rasmussen’s encephalitis (RE) is a rare pediatric neurological disorder, and the exact etiology is not clear. Viral infection may be involved in the pathogenesis of RE, but conflicting results have reported. In this study, we evaluated the expression of both Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and human herpes virus (HHV) 6 antigens in brain sections from 30 patients with RE and 16 control individuals by immunohistochemistry. In the RE group, EBV and HHV6 antigens were detected in 56.7% (17/30) and 50% (15/30) of individuals, respectively. In contrast, no detectable EBV and HHV6 antigen expression was found in brain tissues of the control group. The co-expression of EBV and HHV6 was detected in 20.0% (6/30) of individuals. In particular, a 4-year-old boy had a typical clinical course, including a medical history of viral encephalitis, intractable epilepsy, and hemispheric atrophy. The co-expression of EBV and HHV6 was detected in neurons and astrocytes in the brain tissue, accompanied by a high frequency of CD8⁺ T cells. Our results suggest that EBV and HHV6 infection and the activation of CD8⁺ T cells are involved in the pathogenesis of RE.     

Perinatal Vertical Transmission of Chikungunya Virus in Ruili,a Town on the Border between China and Myanmar

正Dear Editor,Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), an arbovirus in the family of Togaviridae, genus Alphavirus, is transmitted by the A.aegyptii or A. albopictus mosquito, and causes disease in humans characterized by fever, rash, and arthralgia (Silva and Dermody 2017; Suhrbier 2019). It was first reported in 1953 in Tanzania, and caused only a few outbreaks and sporadic cases in Africa and Asia in last century. However, in the epidemic in 2004, CHIKV acquired mutations that conferred enhanced transmission by the A. albopictus mosquito(Schuffenecker et al. 2006). Since then, it has successively caused outbreaks in Africa, the Indian Ocean, South East Asia, the South America, and Europe (Zeller et al. 2016).     

Development of a Novel Reverse Transcription Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Method for Rapid Detection of SARS-CoV-2

In conclusion, the novel visual RT-LAMP assay is a simple, rapid, and sensitive approach for detection of SARS-CoV-2, and it is ready for application in primary care and community hospitals or health care centers, and even patients' own houses in response to the current SARS-CoV-2 epidemic because the assay does not require sophisticated equipment and skilled personnel. Furthermore, it is also ready to be used in fields for screening samples from wild animals and environments to facilitate the identification of potential intermediate hosts that mediate the cross-species transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from bats to humans.