A replacement name for Dayus Gerken, 2001 (Crustacea,Peracarida, Cumacea), preoccupied by Dayus Mahmood, 1967 (Insecta,Hemiptera, Cicadellidae)

A replacement name is proposed for genus Dayus Gerken, 2001 (Crustacea: Peracarida: Cumacea), preoccupied by Dayus Mahmood, 1967 (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadellidae). The following changes are proposed: Jennidayus new replacement name = Dayus Gerken, 2001 (nec Mahmood 1967); Jennidayus pharocheradus (Gerken, 2001), comb. n. = Dayus pharocheradus Gerken, 2001; Jennidayus acanthus (Gerken, 2001), comb. n. = Dayus acanthus Gerken, 2001; Jennidayus makrokolosus (Gerken, 2001), comb. n. = Dayus makrokolosus Gerken, 2001.     

Control of Black Vine Weevil larvae Otiorhynchus sulcatus (Fabricius) (Coleoptera:Curculionidae) in grow bags outdoors with nematodes

Abstract 1 Outdoor trials were carried out during 2001–02 on strawberries grown in commercial growing bags naturally infested with black vine weevil larvae (BVW) Otiorhynchus sulcatus in Co. Wexford, Ireland. 2 The two nematode isolates used in these trials were Heterorhabditis megidis (UK211) and Heterorhabditis downesi (K122), both laboratory cultured. Growing bags received nematodes either once (May 2001), twice (May and October 2001) or three times (May, October 2001 and May 2002). Ten days after each application date, nine blocks (of the total 27) were randomly selected, destructively assessed and discarded. 3 The single application (May 2001) resulted in a mortality of black vine weevil larvae, of 93.4% with H. megidis and 51.3% with H. downesi, compared with the control treatment at that date. Respective figures after the double application (May 2001 and October 2001) were 78.9 and 77.6% and after the triple application (May 2001, October 2001 and May 2002) the figures were 93.7 and 88.1%. 4 Results from these trials clearly indicate that entomopathogenic nematodes are good alternatives to chemical control of the black vine weevil on strawberries grown in growing bags in Ireland.     

Formation of a Tree having a Low Lignin Content

Received 30 September 2001/ Accepted in revised form 26 October 2001     

Cell-Cell Interactions during Vascular Development

Received 1 September 2001/ Accepted in revised form 15 October 2001     

Molecular genetic characteristics of the Newcastle Sterna/Astrakhan/Z275/2001 virus isolated in Russia

The genome of the NDV strain Sterna/Astrakhan/2755/2001 isolated from a wild bird of the Volga River delta in 2001 was completely sequenced. The phylogenetic analysis of the strain investigated and other NDV strains clearly demonstrated that Sterna/Astrakhan/2755/ 2001 belonged to the lineage 5b. Comparative analysis of molecular genetic markers of pathogenicity of strain Sterna/Astrakhan/2755/ 2001 allows its velogenic character to be suggested.     

Involvement of Localized Cortical Microtubules in the Formation of a Modified Structure of Wood

Received 14 September 2001/ Accepted in revised form 15 October 2001     

Role of water-soluble polysaccharides in bacterial cellulose production

Acetobacter xylinum BPR2001 produces water-insoluble bacterial cellulose (BC) and a water-soluble polysaccharide called acetan in corn steep liquor-fructose medium. Acetobacter xylinum EP1, which is incapable of acetan production was derived by disrupting the aceA gene of BPR2001. The BC production by EP1 (2.88 g/L) was lower than that by BPR2001 (4.6 g/L) in baffled-flask culture. When purified acetan or agar was added to the medium from the start of cultivation, the BC production by EP1 was enhanced and the final BC yield of EP1 was almost the same as that of BPR2001. A similar improvement of BC production by EP1 by the addition of agar was also confirmed by cultivation in a 50-L airlift reactor. From these results, the role of acetan in BC production is associated with the increase in the viscosity of the culture medium which may hinder coagulation of BC and cells in the culture, thereby accelerating the growth of BPR2001 and BC production by BPR2001.     

Morphometric analyses reveal synonymy of two monotypic genera, Huangiella and Tumoris (Acari, Eriophyoidea, Eriophyidae)

Morphological variation of Huangiella lanyuensis (Huang, 2001) and Tumoris sanasaii Huang, 2001 from Taiwan was analyzed using multivariate statistical methods. We show that these species are the same and propose to use the name Tumoris sanasaii. No significant differences between populations from Lanyu and Green Island (type localities for Huangiella lanyuensis and Tumoris sanasaii, respectively) were found; however, mites from Yangmingshan (northern Taiwan) differed substantially from these two groups. Synonymy resulted from our study is as follows: Huangiella Kammerer, 2006 is a junior synonym of Tumoris Huang, 2001; Absentia lanyuensis Huang, 2001 is a junior synonym of Tumoris sanasaii Huang, 2001. We also study the sexual variation of populations from Green Island. The result showed the females significantly larger than the males at 17 variables.     

A specific brassinosteroid biosynthesis inhibitor, Brz2001: evaluation of its effects on Arabidopsis, cress, tobacco, and rice

Brassinazole is the only known specific brassinosteroid (BR)-biosynthesis inhibitor, and it has been shown to be useful for elucidating the function of BRs. In the course of a structure-activity relationship study of brassinazole, we found a more specific BR-biosynthesis inhibitor, Brz2001. This new inhibitor induced similar morphological changes to those seen in brassinazole-treated plants, including Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh., Nicotiana tabacum L., and Lepidium sativum L. These changes included dwarfism with altered leaf morphology, including downward curling and dark-green color, and the changes were reversed by brassinolide. Although the structure of Brz2001 is similar to that of uniconazole, a gibberellin-biosynthesis inhibitor, Brz2001-treated plants showed almost no recovery with the addition of gibberellic acid (GA3). Comparison of the responses of both brassinazole- and Brz2001-treated cress to brassinolide and GA3 suggested that Brz2001 is a more specific BR-biosynthesis inhibitor than brassinazole. Unlike the results just described, Brz2001-treated rice did not show any morphological changes. This suggests that the roles of BRs in rice may be different from those in the dicotyledonous plants examined in this study. Brz2001 can be used to clarify the function of BRs in dicots as a complement to BR-deficient mutants, and to elucidate the different roles of BRs in monocots and dicots.     

ChAnge, Stress, Sustainability and Aquatic ecosystem Resilience In North African wetland lakes during the 20th century: an introduction to integrated biodiversity studies within the CASSARINA Project

The CASSARINA Project is a co-ordinated joint study of recent environmental change in North African wetland lakes. Nine primary sites were selected for detailed study comprising three sites in each of Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. Multi-disciplinary studies were undertaken by scientists from each of these countries working in co-operation with colleagues in the UK and Norway. The detailed results are presented in a consecutive suite of papers that describe both modern ecosystem attributes and the recent environmental histories of each site. This paper presents an overview of the aims, structure and initial results of the project.Modern site attributes measured were water quality and phytoplankton (Fathi et al., 2001), zooplankton (Ramdani et al., 2001b), fish (Kraïem et al., 2001) and littoral vegetation (Ramdani et al., 2001a). Baseline water quality data showed that one site (Megene Chitane) was acid with low salinity but the others had high alkalinities with varying degrees of brackishness. All the sites tended to be eutrophic and the phytoplankton was mainly dominated by green or blue-green algae. Where fish were present, growth rates were high with marginally highest rates in the Egyptian Delta lakes (Kraïem et al., 2001). Marginal vegetation surveys showed that emergent macrophytes were still extensive only in the Delta lakes (Ramdani et al., 2001a) where they form important refuges and restrict water pollution. In 1998, one Moroccan wetland lake (Merja Bokka) was drained completely for cultivation.Site specific environmental change records for the 20th century period were obtained using palaeolimnological techniques. Sediment core chronologies (Appleby et al., 2001) were based mainly on radio-isotopes (²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs). Sedimentary remains of aquatic biota, diatoms, zooplankton, higher plants and benthic animals (Flower et al., 2001; Ramdani et al., 2001c; Birks et al., 2001a) and pollen (Peglar et al., 2001) were investigated (Birks et al., 2001b). Major differences in past species abundances were found and were interpreted in terms relevant to biodiversity and water quality/availability change. Metals and pesticide residues in sediment cores indicated that lake contamination was generally lower than in some European sites but some DDE profiles showed a close correspondence with known usage histories (Peters et al., 2001).Hydrological changes affecting water quality and availability mainly arose from land-use intensification during the 20th century and are shown to be the main driver of biodiversity disturbance at all nine CASSARINA sites. Summarizing floristic and faunistic changes using species richness values indicated that freshening of the Delta lakes during this century generally increased aquatic diversity. Species richness also increased during the final drainage of Bokka but tended to decline in acid Chitane. Modern sampling showed that phytoplankton and epiphytic diatom diversity was higher in the Delta lakes but this was not so for zooplankton. Each biological group reacted differently to environmental disturbance and this lack of concordance makes overall diversity changes difficult to predict.     

The Effect of the Post 2001 Reforms on FMD Risks of the International Live Animal Trade

The 2001 UK foot and mouth disease (FMD) epidemic marked a change in global FMD management, focusing less on trade isolation than on biosecurity within countries where FMD is endemic. Post 2001 policy calls for the isolation of disease-free zones in FMD-endemic countries, while increasing the opportunities for trade. The impact of the change on disease risk has yet to be tested. In this paper, we estimate an empirical model of disease risk that tests for the impact of trade volumes before and after 2001, controlling for biosecurity measures. In the pre 2001 regime, we find that poor biosecurity was associated with the probability of reporting an outbreak. In the post 2001 regime, the risks changed, with trade being a much greater source of risk. We discuss the trade-off between trade restrictions and biosecurity measures in the management of FMD disease risks.     

Gifts of Pride and Love: The Cultural Significance of Kiowa and Comanche Lattice Cradles

Gifts of Pride and Love: The Cultural Significance of Kiowa and Comanche Lattice Cradles. Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University, Bristol, RI, 1998; Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK, December 4, 1999-February 2000; Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ, April 20-July 16, 2001; Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, August 27, 2000-January 16, 2001; National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Gustav Heye Center, New York, NY, March-May 2001; Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, Norman, OK, June-September 2001; Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Ledyard, CT, October 2001-January 2002.
Gifts of Pride and Love: Kiowa and Comanche Cradles. Barbara A. Hail. ed. Bristol, RI: Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University, 2000. 135 pp.     

CHANGES IN ABUNDANCE OF HARBOR SEALS IN MAINE, 1981–2001

Aerial counts of harbor seals ( Pboca vitulina concolor ) on ledges along the Maine coast were conducted during the pupping season in 1981, 1986, 1993, 1997, and 2001. Between 1981 and 2001, the uncorrected counts of seals increased from 10,543 to 38,014, an annual rate of 6.6 percent. In 2001 30 harbor seals were captured and radio-tagged prior to aerial counts. Of these, 19 harbor seals (six adult males, two adult females, seven juvenile males, and four juvenile females) were available during the survey to develop a correction factor for the fraction of seals not observed. The corrected 2001 abundance estimate was 99,340 harbor seals. Productivity in this population has increased since 1981 from 6.4% pups to 24.4% pups. The number of gray seals ( Halichoerus grypus ) counted during the harbor seal surveys increased from zero in both 1981 and 1986 to 1,731 animals in 2001.     

Chromosome replication: from ORC to fork

A report on the 2001 Eukaryotic DNA Replication meeting, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, 5-9 September 2001.     

Tn2001, a transposon encoding chloramphenicol resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

We isolated a new transposon, Tn2001, from the group P-2 plasmid Rms159-1 in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Tn2001-encoded chloramphenicol resistance did not result from the formation of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase. Tn2001 was transposable between temperate phages and conjugative and nonconjugative plasmids belonging to various incompatibility groups, including P-1, P-3, P-4, P-5, P-7, and P-8 in P. aeruginosa. Transposition occurred independently of the general recombination ability of the Pseudomonas host, and its frequency varied between 10(-1) and 10(-8), depending upon the donor and recipient replicons. Tn2001 transposition also occurred in a recombination-deficient strain of Escherichia coli. Agarose gel electrophoresis and electron microscopic observations revealed that Tn2001 could transpose to different sites in the RP4 replicon and that the transposed deoxyribonucleic acid fragment was 2.1 kilobases long.     

Effects of structural analogs of brassinosteroids on the recovery of growth inhibition by a specific brassinosteriod biosynthesis inhibitor

A brassinosteroid inhibitor (Brz2001) was used to block the growth of roots, hypocotyls, and epicotyls of soybean seedlings, producing a dwarf phenotype. The application of 24-epibrassinolide completely reversed the inhibitory effects of Brz2001. Two other growth-promoting brassinosteroid analogs, MH5 and BB6, partially overcame the Brz2001-induced growth defects. The growth inhibition of Brz2001-treated seedlings was more effectively reversed by MH5 than by BB6, which may be due to the structural differences between the two compounds. These results indicate that the studied analogs may show brassinosteroid-like activity and therefore may have some practical use instead of brassinolide or its analogues.     

Actin and Flagellin May Have an N-Terminal Relationship

There is an 8/13 sequence match between actin and flagellin in their N-terminal regions. Received: 2 January 2001 / Accepted: 4 June 2001     

Post-genomic Pseudomonas

A report on the Pseudomonas 2001 Meeting, Brussels, Belgium, 17-21 September 2001.     

中国云南省四种蟹蛛(蜘蛛目,蟹蛛科)记述

描述了采自中国云南省高黎贡山的4种蟹蛛:小棒绿蟹蛛Oxytate clavulata Tang,Yinet Peng,sp.nov.和中国3新纪录种:不丹绿蟹蛛Oxytate bhutanica Ono,2001,小斜蟹蛛Loxobates minor Ono,2001和南国花叶蛛Synema nangokuOno,2002,其中小斜蟹蛛的雌性为首次发现。小棒绿蟹蛛,新种Oxytate clavulata Tang,Yinet Peng,sp.nov.(图1~5)正模♂(HNU-YHY2601),云南腾冲县上营乡大蒿坪村,2040m,2006-06-04,尹长民、胡佳芳、杨效华采。词源:本种因触肢器的插入器呈小棒状而命名。新种近似于平行绿蟹蛛O.parallela(Simon,1880),但能与后者区别于:1)触肢后侧突末端弯向内侧而后者弯向腹侧;2)插入器基部有一突起而后者没有。分布:中国云南。不丹绿蟹蛛Oxytate bhutanica Ono,2001(图6~15)Oxytate bhutanica Ono,2001:205,figs.1-5.观察标本:1♀,1♂(HNU-YHY0401),界头乡桥头村,1652m,2006-05-17;6♀♀(HNU-YHY0302),界头乡周家坡,1660m,2006-05-16;1♂(HNU-YHY0803),界头乡张家营村,1665m,2006-05-20;1♀,1♂(CAS-YHY1506),腾岳镇宝丰寺,1790m,2006-05-31;1♀(CAS-YHY1703),曲石乡热海,1470m,2006-06-01;1♀(CAS-YHY3801),荷花镇米兰,1400m,2006-06-07。以上标本均由尹长民、胡佳芳和杨效华采自云南省腾冲县。其余观察标本:1♀(HNU-Tang040501),贡山县独龙江乡迪政当村,1841m,2004-10-27~30,唐果采;1♀(HNU-Tang040605),贡山县独龙江乡龙元村白来组,1676m,2004-10-31~11-03,唐果采;2♀♀(CAS-DHK0501201),泸水县片马乡岗房,1780m,2005-05-16,David KAVANAUGH采。分布:不丹、中国(云南)。小斜蟹蛛Loxobates minor Ono,2001(图16~28)Loxobates minor Ono,2001:207,figs.6-8.观察标本:1♀,2♂♂(HNU-David065002);云南腾冲清水镇热海良盈村,1450m,2006-06-01,David KAVANAUGH,Roberta BRETT和董大志采;6♀♀(YHY1707:3♀♀,HNU;3♀♀,CAS);云南腾冲清水镇热海,1470m,2006-06-01,尹长民、胡佳芳、杨效华采;1♂(CAS-YHY2102),腾冲荷花镇朗蒲村,1150m,2006-06-02,胡鹏采。分布:不丹、中国。南国花叶蛛Synema nangoku Ono,2002(图29~33)Synema nangoku Ono,2002:206,figs.13-18.观察标本:1♀,3若蛛(HNU-YHY3202),中国云南腾冲芒棒乡,1300m,2006-06-05,胡鹏采。分布:日本、中国(云南)。