两栖类和爬行类体温调节的神经生物学研究进展

两栖类和爬行类属于变温脊椎动物,它们对外界环境温度的变化非常敏感,借助自身体温调节以适应或抵抗这种变化.本文简要介绍了它们的体温调节中枢、参与体温调节的神经递质和激素及其体温调节的研究方法和神经生物学机制.     

覆盖与间作对亚热带丘陵茶园地温时空变化的影响

研究了亚热带丘陵茶园连续4年进行稻草覆盖与白三叶草间作对茶园地温时空动态变化的影响.结果表明,茶园地温具有明显的时空动态变化特征和位相滞后现象,与茶树的年生长发育周期各阶段的最适温度非常吻合.稻草覆盖与白三叶草间作改变了土壤热量交换层（地表层）的性质,具有升温时降温和降温时增温、保温的双向动态调控作用,降低了日较差,增强了同一土层温度的稳定性,其调控效果为随着土壤深度增加而降低,13：00>19：00>7：00,降温大于增温和保温,降温幅度随气温的升高而增大,增温和保温随气温的下降而加强,间作白三叶草的降温效果大于稻草覆盖,保温效果则相反.茶园地温时空变化转换点得到调节,显著地降低了有害高温的出现次数,明显地降低了持续高温期的土壤温度,有效地缩短了极限高温时间.     

温度变化对中国林蛙胚胎发育的影响

开展中国林蛙南移和人工养殖是一项很有意义的工作,而南方多变的气温是否影响其胚胎发育是一个尚未研究的课题。本文利用受精卵在不同温度的恒温培养箱间移换,研究了温度变化对中国林蛙早期胚胎发育的影响,结果表明：（１）快速升温对中国林蛙胚胎孵化率、正常率均有影响,且温差越大影响越大;缓慢升温对胚胎的影响与温差大小和升温起点有关,高起点的升温对胚胎的影响比低起点的升温更大,生产中快速升温以不超过２℃,慢速升温以不超过４℃为宜。（２）慢速降温幅度为４℃时,对胚胎发育无影响,为８℃时,有影响;快速降温幅度为４℃时,对胚胎孵化率和正常率均有影响,生产中慢速降温以不超过８℃,快速降温以不超过４℃为宜。（３）变温幅度相同时,变温速度越大,对胚胎的影响越大。（４）原肠期是中国林蛙胚胎发育的升温敏感期,神经管期为升温非敏感期,中国林蛙胚胎发育中对升温变化较降温敏感。（５）中国林蛙的胚胎发育不会因南方天气的异常而遭到严重的影响。     

2006年第17届国际生物学奥林匹克竞赛(5)

理论测试单元A 动物解剖与生理学 体温调节是生物生存的基础.产热与散热的平衡决定体温.在爬行类、两栖类和鱼类等脊椎动物中,体温在一定范围内波动.在鸟类与哺乳动物中存在反射机制使体温保持在1个较窄的范围内,不论环境温度如何波动.     

动物体温调节的昼夜节律

本文介绍了无脊椎动物,外热脊椎动物(鱼类、两栖类和爬行类)、内热脊椎动物(哺乳类和鸟类)体温调节的昼夜节律表现,列举了许多动物体温变化的资料,对教师拓宽知识面和教学参考皆有益。     

丁香酚对致热家兔弓状核及PO/AH区脑组织中PGE2和cAMP含量的影响

丁香酚是中药丁香油中的主要作用成份,它具有多种复杂的药理作用,尤其在解热降温方面有显著作用.本研究室以往的电生理实验观察到,丁香酚可反转致热原作用下的PO/AH(视前区-下丘脑前部)温度敏感神经元的放电活动,说明丁香酚的解热作用是通过直接或间接地影响PO/AH神经元的放电活动而实现的.近年来,弓状核在体温调节方面的作用倍受观注.本研究室多年的研究表明,弓状核积极地参与了体温调节活动,因为毁损弓状核后大鼠体温发生明显紊乱.本实验对PO/AH与弓状核在体温调节中的作用进行比较性研究,同时观察家兔发热以及丁香酚解热时在家兔弓状核及PO/AH中PGE2和cAMP含量的变化.     

爬行动物体色的快速变化

快速变色是动物对纷繁复杂的自然界高度适应的策略之一。爬行动物中部分有鳞目动物将快速变色表现得淋漓尽致。主要介绍爬行动物快速变色在伪装、通讯和体温调节方面的作用,阐述其中的变色机理。爬行类等动物快速变色在生理体色变化方面由神经系统调节为主而产生生物色和结构色方面的变化。快速变色这种适应策略可能由伪装方面的自然选择、通讯方面的自然选择或性选择进化而来,也可能受体温调节需求的影响,还可能是由这三者同时产生的选择压力进化而来。     

千岛湖两栖爬行类动物群落结构嵌套分析

生境片段化是导致生物多样性降低的主要原因之一.该文采用样线法对千岛湖23个岛屿的两栖爬行类进行了调查,并结合植物种类调查数据和GIS技术提取的栖息地景观参数,使用“BINMATNEST”软件和Spearman相关性分析等方法,对这些岛屿上的两栖爬行类群落的分布格局及其影响因素进行分析.结果表明,千岛湖两栖爬行类群落整体上呈现嵌套分布格局;嵌套格局与岛屿面积和生境类型相关显著.因此,在制定千岛湖地区两栖爬行动物保护措施时,应优先考虑面积较大和生境类型多的岛屿.     

环境温度对黑龙江草蜥体温及生理体温调节能力的影响

本文以长白山地区的黑龙江草蜥(Takydromus amurensis)为研究对象,于2014年4—6月在实验室进行饲养和繁殖,10月初,将成体和孵出的幼体置于恒温培养箱内进行体温测量,探讨不同恒温条件和急速升温条件对黑龙江草蜥体温和生理体温调节能力的影响。结果表明:在11~39℃的恒温条件下,黑龙江草蜥的体温受测量时间的影响显著,07:00时体温最低;在11~19℃的恒温条件下,黑龙江草蜥幼体体温显著高于成体体温,在21℃的恒温条件下,成体和幼体体温间无显著差异,在23~39℃的恒温条件下,幼体体温显著低于成体体温;黑龙江草蜥的体温与环境温度呈线性正相关,成体的回归方程为y=0.72366x+7.1778,幼体的回归方程为y=0.6508x+8.8039,与等温线y=x的交点温度分别为25.97和25.21℃;当环境温度从10℃急速升高到30℃时,黑龙江草蜥体温在短时间内快速升高,但升温速率逐渐降低。由此可知,黑龙江草蜥体温受环境温度的影响显著,且具有一定的生理体温调节能力,幼体的生理体温调节能力较强,使其具有较强的恒温性。     

升温/降温速率和驯化模式对斑马鱼及孔雀鱼热耐受性测定的影响

为了探究升温/降温速率以及驯化模式对不同鱼类热耐受性测定的影响,本研究将斑马鱼(Danio rerio)和孔雀鱼(Poecilia reticulata)于恒温(28℃)和变温(26~30℃)下驯化2周,之后分别以某一特定的升温/降温速率(0.03、0.1、0.3、1和3℃·min-1)测定其热耐受性参数(临界高温CTmax、临界低温CTmin、致死高温LTmax、致死低温LTmin)。结果表明:升温/降温速率对CTmax、CTmin、LTmax和LTmin的测定结果均影响显著(P0.05),两种实验鱼的CTmin和LTmin均随着降温速率的减小而降低,而CTmax和LTmax在低的升温速率下降低或保持不变;驯化模式显著影响CTmin和LTmax(P0.05),变温驯化有导致两种鱼LTmax增大以及孔雀鱼CTmin降低的趋势;斑马鱼的热耐受幅大于孔雀鱼。结果提示:升温/降温速率对鱼类低温耐受的影响大于高温耐受,并且对热耐受幅窄的鱼类影响更大。     

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.