油菜基因流网络的结构特性与小团体分析

为从系统角度掌握转基因油菜(Brassica campestris)基因流规律, 基于常规油菜与十字花科植物杂交的有关文献,构建了油菜基因流网络拓扑图实例并分析其网络结构特性。研究结果表明, 该网络节点度服从幂律分布, 具有无标度特性。从随机攻击和恶性攻击两个方面对标准结构熵和网络效率2个指标的网络稳健性进行分析, 结果显示在随机移除不到10%的顶点时网络表现较好的鲁棒性, 但在受到选择性移除10%的顶点时, 网络具有极弱的抗攻击性。基于软件UCINET对网络进行了小团体和结构同型性分析, 可将网络中298个节点22类十字花科植物划分为2个小团体和5类结构角色, 其中甘蓝型油菜在基因流网络小团体中具有关键性作用。这些研究结果可为揭示转基因油菜基因流规律提供新思路, 同时也可对转基因油菜商业化种植采取合理的农业生产栽培管理措施提供参考。     

转基因甘蓝型油菜亲和性等级识别方法构建

为预测转基因甘蓝型油菜商业释放的基因流环境生态风险,基于模糊数学中模糊聚类分析与模糊模型识别,并结合生物统计学相关知识,构建了转基因甘蓝型油菜亲和性等级识别方法.该方法包含转基因甘蓝型油菜种间组合亲和性的模糊聚类分析、模糊聚类结果F检验、种间组合风险等级划分和风险等级模式识别4个基本步骤.并在等级模式识别步骤中针对样本数据收集情况的不同,构建了不同的等级识别方法,与传统聚类的硬性划分相比更具灵活性.以收集的常规油菜杂交实验数据聚类形成6个风险等级模式,将一甘蓝型油菜种间杂交实验进行亲和性等级识别为例对该方法进行了演示,论证了该方法具可操作性.     

油菜BnCr4基因RNAi载体构建及植株转化

该实验构建了含甘蓝型油菜黄化相关基因BnCr4特异片段反向重复结构的RNA干扰(RNAi)载体pFGC5941-Cr4,通过根癌农杆菌介导转化油菜,获得47株抗Basta的抗性再生油菜植株,其中10株经PCR鉴定为阳性转基因植株.随机选取3株经鉴定的转基因阳性油菜植株进行半定量RT-PCR分析,结果显示,相对于非转基因的野生型油菜,3株转基因植株中BnCr4基因的表达量分别降低了78.5%、8.5%、11.8%,表明该干扰载体转入油菜能特异引起植株BnCr4基因表达量下降.     

转基因油菜的基因流及生态风险

综合评述了转基因油菜的基因流及其生态风险.油菜作为最早的转基因作物之一目前已在加拿大和澳大利亚大面积商业化应用.(常)异花授粉作物油菜的天然异交率可达30%左右,也易与其它芸苔属作物杂交,因此转基因油菜的生态风险已引起各国科学家的高度重视.转基因油菜主要通过与其野生近缘种的花粉交换和与非转基因油菜的花粉交换两种方式进行花粉的输出.基因可能逃逸到相关野生近缘种,但在大田环境下能够得到杂种的可能性很小;由于基因的漂流在油菜田块间确实存在,因此在种植转基因油菜的过程中必须考虑其间隔距离.     

转基因植物与近缘种之间基因流的研究进展

随着转基因植物的大面积种植,转基因植物的生态风险受到广泛关注,其中主要的风险是转基因植物与近缘物种之间的基因流及其影响。本文综述了目前商业化种植的转基因作物油菜、棉花、玉米和大豆,以及未商业化种植的水稻、小麦的基因流研究进展;分析了不同转基因作物与其近缘种之间发生基因流的频率和最远发生距离;介绍了降低基因流发生的方法。基因流频率受物种亲缘关系、花期重叠时间、风速风向等因素的影响,最远发生距离受气候条件、传粉媒介、地理条件等因素的影响。转基因作物与其近缘种之间的基因流频率与距花粉源的距离呈负相关关系(y=-0.59x-0.46,R²=0.25,P<0.01),亲缘关系近的基因流频率高。为了降低转基因植物与其近缘物种之间的基因流风险,建议采取“分区管理”的策略,并加强基因流发生之后的生态风险评价研究。     

西南地区麻疯树天然种群遗传多样性的等位酶变异

为了揭示麻疯树(Jatropha curcas)天然种群的遗传多样性和遗传结构, 采用聚苯烯酰胺凝胶垂直平板电泳技术, 对采自四川、云南、贵州3个省的10个麻疯树天然种群的叶片样本进行了同工酶分析。7个酶系统10个位点的检测结果表明: 麻疯树种群水平上的遗传多样性较高, 每位点平均等位基因数为2.428 6, 多态位点百分率为97.14%, 平均期望杂合度为0.396 4。种群间遗传分化系数为0.041 3, 种群间总的基因流较高, 为5.808 9, 种群间遗传一致度较高(Shannon信息指数为0.921 7- 0.995 3)。非加权类平均法(UPGMA)聚类结果显示, 10个种群的遗传距离与地理距离相关性不显著。麻疯树天然种群具有较低程度的遗传分化、较高的基因流, 种内及种群内多样性丰富, 这为麻疯树优良品种的选育提供了良好的遗传基础。     

早熟油菜成花相关基因LFY的克隆与分析

以甘蓝型油菜晚熟品种RG-8的早熟突变体RG-8M为材料,通过同源克隆法得到1个LEAFY(LFY)同源基因,命名为BnLFY。该基因cDNA全长为1 310bp,包含1个长为1 248bp的开放阅读框,编码415个氨基酸。序列分析表明,推测的氨基酸序列含双子叶植物LFY类蛋白特有的N端脯氨酸富集区、中央酸性区、亮氨酸拉链结构以及富含赖氨酸与精氨酸的碱性区;且与几种十字花科植物LFY类蛋白的氨基酸序列一致性均在84%以上。转录表达分析表明,BnLFY基因在油菜中为组成型表达。     

5种转基因油菜转化体特异性多重PCR检测方法

【目的】全球转基因植物及其产品的数量和种类越来越多,迫切需要可同时精准高效检测多个转化载体的检测方法。【方法】针对RF1、MS8、Topas19/2、Oxy235和RF3等5个转基因油菜品系的侧翼序列及油菜内源基因cruciferin A(Cru A)序列设计多重聚合酶链式反应特异性引物,通过对转基因油菜、转基因大豆、转基因玉米、转基因水稻、转基因棉花等不同作物进行PCR扩增来测试所选择的引物特异性,优化多重PCR反应引物的浓度,用所建立的检测体系对不同混合比例的转基因油菜进行多重PCR扩增来测试所建立的检测方法的灵敏度。【结果】通过测试,仅在含有目标样品中检测出阳性结果,灵敏度达0.05%,表明所建立的6重PCR检测方法可同时精准检测RF1、MS8、Topas19/2、Oxy235和RF3等5种转基因油菜转化载体。【结论】所建立的6重转基因油菜转化体特异性PCR检测方法通量高、特异性好、灵敏度高,符合有关转基因产品检测的要求,可作为转基因油菜检测的有效方法。     

油菜的遗传转化及抗溴苯腈转基因油菜的获得

以油菜(Brassica napus L.)的下胚轴和子叶为转化受体,建立了油菜的高效转化系统。在此基础上,将抗除草剂溴苯腈基因(bxn基因)导入油菜,获得了抗溴苯腈转基因油菜。分子检测实验证明,转基因油菜中含有bxn基因。转基因油菜可抗高达10~(-3)mol/L的溴苯腈。     

基于网络分析的城市生态空间结构优化——以常州市为例

经济社会的高速发展带来城市的快速扩张,造成城市生态空间的萎缩和生态功能的下降,城市生态安全受到严重威胁。系统研究城市生态空间结构,提出针对性保护和优化措施,对于城市的可持续发展具有重大意义。本研究以常州市为研究区,考虑城市生态空间的自然生态功能和社会服务功能两方面,构建基于自然生态的“源地-廊道”与基于人文生态的“供给-需求”两类生态网络,对于源地廊道生态网络,主要从节点重要性、网络连通性与稳定性进行定量分析,对于供给需求生态网络,主要从节点重要性、供需均衡与稳定性进行定量分析。结果表明: 常州市主城区源地廊道生态网络的连通性与稳定性水平不高,供给需求生态网络的稳定性水平一般且存在服务供给与需求的空间错位。从连通性与稳定性提升角度,提出新增12个源地节点与57条廊道的源地廊道生态网络优化方案;从供需均衡与稳定性提升角度,提出新增22个供给节点的供给需求生态网络优化方案。对比初始源地廊道生态网络,优化网络连通性水平提升10%,稳定性提升0.05;对比初始供给需求生态网络,优化网络的服务水平提升4%,网络稳定性提升0.10。最后,综合两类生态网络,分别针对现状保护斑块与新增节点两类对象,提出了保护与管理实施方案。     

Interpreting the estimated timing of migration events between hybridizing species

The question of whether speciation can occur in the presence of gene flow has long been a contentious one. However, measuring the amount and timing of gene flow remains challenging. The computer program IMa2 allows researchers to estimate the timing of migration events for each locus during analyses, and these estimates have been used to infer the timing of introgression and mode of speciation. We use simulated data sets to examine the degree to which gene-flow timing estimates can be used for these purposes, and what demographic conditions and data sets may be most amenable to gene-flow timing estimation. We find that the 90% highest posterior density (HPD) interval of gene-flow timing is almost always substantially wider than the actual window of gene flow, and increasing the information content of the data set in terms of number of loci, number of sequences sampled or locus length (and thus number of variable sites) has little impact on the posterior distribution over the range of values we tested. Even when simulated gene flow only occurred over the most recent 0.01% of the species' history, the HPD interval usually encompasses the inferred divergence time. Our results indicate that gene-flow timing estimates made using the method currently implemented in IMa2 cannot reliably be used to make inferences about the timing of introgression between diverged species or to distinguish between speciation with gene flow and allopatric speciation followed by one or more episodes of gene flow.     

Gene-flow between niches facilitates local adaptation in sexual populations

In sexual populations, gene-flow between niches is predicted to have differential consequences on local adaptation contingent upon the nature of trade-offs underlying local adaptation. Sex retards local adaptation if antagonistic pleiotropy underlies trade-offs, but facilitates adaptation if mutation accumulation underlies trade-offs. We evaluate the effect of sex in heterogeneous environments by manipulating gene-flow between two niches in sexual and asexual populations using steady-state microcosm experiments with yeast. We find that only sex in the presence of gene-flow promotes simultaneous local adaptation to different niches, presumably as this exposes mutations neutrally accrued in alternate niches to selection. This finding aligns with work showing mutation accumulation underlies trade-offs to local adaptation in asexual microbes, and with inferences of divergence in the presence of gene-flow in natural sexual populations. This experiment shows that sex may be of benefit in heterogeneous environments, and thus helps explain why sex has been maintained more generally.     

Attack resilience of the evolving scientific collaboration network

Stationary complex networks have been extensively studied in the last ten years. However, many natural systems are known to be continuously evolving at the local ("microscopic") level. Understanding the response to targeted attacks of an evolving network may shed light on both how to design robust systems and finding effective attack strategies. In this paper we study empirically the response to targeted attacks of the scientific collaboration networks. First we show that scientific collaboration network is a complex system which evolves intensively at the local level--fewer than 20% of scientific collaborations last more than one year. Then, we investigate the impact of the sudden death of eminent scientists on the evolution of the collaboration networks of their former collaborators. We observe in particular that the sudden death, which is equivalent to the removal of the center of the egocentric network of the eminent scientist, does not affect the topological evolution of the residual network. Nonetheless, removal of the eminent hub node is exactly the strategy one would adopt for an effective targeted attack on a stationary network. Hence, we use this evolving collaboration network as an experimental model for attack on an evolving complex network. We find that such attacks are ineffectual, and infer that the scientific collaboration network is the trace of knowledge propagation on a larger underlying social network. The redundancy of the underlying structure in fact acts as a protection mechanism against such network attacks.     

Strait of Gibraltar: an effective gene-flow barrier for wind-pollinated Carex helodes (Cyperaceae) as revealed by DNA sequences, AFLP, and cytogenetic variation

The Strait of Gibraltar is the most important barrier disconnecting the landmasses of Europe and Africa on the western Mediterranean extreme. Carex helodes is a wind-pollinated species endemic to the western Mediterranean. Because molecular and cytogenetic data allow the inference of its evolutionary history, we analyzed variations in chromosome number, including meiotic chromosome behavior, amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) fingerprints, and nucleotide substitutions in plastid and nuclear DNA sequences. Cytogeographic results showed that the African populations have stabilized at a single chromosome number of 2n = 74, whereas the most frequent cytotype in Iberia is 2n = 72. Phylogenetic reconstructions of 17 sequences from nine closely related species revealed that C. helodes is monophyletic and that the Moroccan populations are embedded in the Iberian lineages. The haplotype network is also consistent with a European origin of the northern African haplotype. AFLP analysis also revealed hierarchical levels of genetic variation compatible with a founder effect process responsible for the African populations. All sources of evidence support the hypothesis that the Strait of Gibraltar has been an effective gene-flow barrier, generating two isolated evolutionary lineages after their dispersal. Recent connections between the two lineages appear unlikely, whereas active gene flow occurs among populations within the two lineages.     

Leptokurtic pollen-flow,non-leptokurtic gene-flow in a wind-pollinated herb,Plantago lanceolata L.

Summary The purpose of this study was to simultaneously measure pollen dispersal distance and actual pollen-mediated gene-flow distance in a wind-pollinated herb, Plantago lanceolata. The pollen dispersal distribution, measured as pollen deposition in a wind tunnel, is leptokurtic, as expected from previous studies of wind-pollinated plants. Gene-flow, measured as seeds produced on rows of male-sterile inflorescences in the wind tunnel, is non-leptokurtic, peaking at an intermediate distance. The difference between the two distributions results from the tendency of the pollen grains to cluster. These pollen clusters are the units of gene dispersal, with clusters of intermediate and large size contributing disproportionately to gene-flow. Since many wind-pollinated species show pollen clustering (see text), the common assumption for wind-pollinated plants that gene-flow is leptokurtic requires re-examination. Gene-flow was also measured in an artifical outdoor population of male-steriles, containing a single pollen source plant in the center of the array. The gene flow distribution is significantly platykurtic, and has the same general properties outdoors, where wind speed and turbulence are uncontrolled, as it does in the wind tunnel. I estimated genetic neighborhood size based on my measure of gene-flow in the outdoor population. The estimate shows that populations of Plantago lanceolata will vary in effective number from a few tens of plants to more than five hundred plants, depending on the density of the population in question. Thus, the measured pollen-mediated gene-flow distribution and population density will interact to produce effective population sizes ranging from those in which there is no random genetic drift to those in which random genetic drift plays an important role in determining gene frequencies within and among populations. Despite the platykurtosis in the distribution, pollen-mediated gene dispersal distances are still quite limited, and considerable within and among-population genetic differentiation is to be expected in this species.     

青海省东部地区喜马拉雅旱獭种群遗传结构

本研究利用11个微卫星标记对采自青海省东部地区的13个喜马拉雅旱獭（Marmota himalayana）种群149个个体进行了基因分型,并运用种群遗传学方法对其遗传多样性和遗传结构进行分析。结果显示,11个微卫星标记位点共计检测到97个等位基因,各种群的平均观测杂合度和期望杂合度范围分别为0.58~0.82和0.60~0.79,种群遗传多样性水平相对较高;遗传结构分析表明,青海省东部地区的喜马拉雅旱獭种群具有显著的遗传结构,13个地理种群形成了3个遗传聚类群,且3个遗传聚类群与湟水河和黄河上游干流所划分出的地理单元完全一致,因此我们认为湟水河和黄河上游干流是阻碍该地区喜马拉雅旱獭种群进行迁移扩散和基因交流的天然屏障。同时,STRUCTURE分析结果还显示3个遗传聚类群间仍有明显的基因流,AMOVA分析也显示3个聚类群间变异百分比为6.60%,仅略高于聚类群内种群间的变异（4.51%）,而远低于种群内变异水平（88.90%）,表明三个聚类群间的分化程度并不是很深。这说明喜马拉雅旱獭可能通过桥梁或在枯水期等穿越河流进行基因交流。以上结果为该地区的旱獭种群监控和鼠疫防控提供了科学的理论基础。     

Genome sequencing reveals fine scale diversification and reticulation history during speciation in Sus

Background

Elucidating the process of speciation requires an in-depth understanding of the evolutionary history of the species in question. Studies that rely upon a limited number of genetic loci do not always reveal actual evolutionary history, and often confuse inferences related to phylogeny and speciation. Whole-genome data, however, can overcome this issue by providing a nearly unbiased window into the patterns and processes of speciation. In order to reveal the complexity of the speciation process, we sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 10 wild pigs, representing morphologically or geographically well-defined species and subspecies of the genus Sus from insular and mainland Southeast Asia, and one African common warthog.

Results

Our data highlight the importance of past cyclical climatic fluctuations in facilitating the dispersal and isolation of populations, thus leading to the diversification of suids in one of the most species-rich regions of the world. Moreover, admixture analyses revealed extensive, intra- and inter-specific gene-flow that explains previous conflicting results obtained from a limited number of loci. We show that these multiple episodes of gene-flow resulted from both natural and human-mediated dispersal.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate the importance of past climatic fluctuations and human mediated translocations in driving and complicating the process of speciation in island Southeast Asia. This case study demonstrates that genomics is a powerful tool to decipher the evolutionary history of a genus, and reveals the complexity of the process of speciation.     

Structure and evolution of the Fusarium mating type locus: new insights from the Gibberellafujikuroi complex

Mating type genes are central to sexual reproduction and compatibility in Ascomycete fungi. However the "MAT" loci experience unique evolutionary pressures that can result in rapid divergence and enhanced inter-specific gene-flow (lateral gene transfer). In this study, molecular evolution of MAT loci was considered using the genus Fusarium (Teleomorph: Gibberella) as a model. Both MAT1-1 and MAT1-2 "idiomorphs" from eleven species of the Gibberellafujikuroi species complex were sequenced. Molecular evolution of the MAT loci from these heterothallic (self-sterile) species was compared with that of the MAT loci from nine homothallic (self-fertile) species in the Fusariumgraminearum species complex. Although Fusarium has previously been thought to have the same complement of four MAT genes that are found in Neurospora, we found evidence of a novel gene, MAT1-2-3, that may be specific to the Hypocreales. All MAT genes share a similar set of cis-regulatory motifs, although homothallic species might have recruited novel regulatory elements, which could potentially facilitate alternate expression of MAT1-1-1 and MAT1-2-1. FusariumMAT loci displayed evidence consistent with historical lateral gene-flow. Most notably, the MAT1-1 idiomorph of Fusariumsacchari appears to be unrelated to those of other species in the G.fujikuroi complex. In general, FusariumMAT genes are highly divergent. Both positive selection and relaxed selective constraint could account for this phenomenon. However, the extent of both recombination and inter-specific gene-flow in the MAT locus also appears to affect the rate of divergence.