ONTOGENETIC AND HISTOCHEMICAL CHANGES IN THE VEGETATIVE SHOOT TIP OF CHENOPODIUM ALBUM

Gifford , Ernest M., Jr ., and Herbert B. Tepper . (U. California, Davis.) Ontogenetic and histochemical changes in the vegetative shoot tip of Chenopodium album. Amer. Jour. Bot. 49(8): 902–911. Illus. 1962.—A distinct central zone is present in apices of young, rapidly growing seedlings of Chenopodium album. This zone is clearly evident when the plane of section includes developing leaf buttresses and/or newly formed leaf primordia, but is not visible if the cells associated with these developing foliar organs are not in the plane of section. Cells in the central zone contain markedly lower concentrations of RNA than those of the peripheral zone. Differences in DNA, SH-protein, total protein, and histone concentration of cells in the apex parallel the zonal distribution of RNA, but are much less obvious. As the plant ages and the rate of leaf production decreases, the zonal distribution of the above-mentioned compounds becomes less and less obvious. Cells at sites of leaf initiation in older seedlings still have slightly higher RNA concentrations, but a central zone such as is visible in the young seedlings is no longer evident. The axial tunica cells do, however, contain noticeably lower DNA and histone concentrations than the remaining cells of the shoot apex. Changes occur in the size of nucleoli during ontogeny and the possible relationship between nucleolar size and modifying factors is discussed.     

210Pb dating by low background gamma counting

An intertidal fish community in Trinidad Bay, Humboldt County, California, was studied between November 1968 and May 1970. The nursery function of rocky tidal pools for juveniles of subtidal fishes was indicated by peaks in indices of seasonally abundant fish species in summer. The proportion of juveniles of seasonal species in the intertidal fish community rose significantly in collections of late spring and summer, to a maximum of 35% of the individuals collected in July. Annual dominance was relatively high due to abundant populations of the tidepool sculpin, Oligocottus maculosus, but two other fish species were also encountered in tidepools every month of the year.     

Protistan plankton communities in the Galápagos Archipelago respond to changes in deep water masses resulting from the 2015/16 El Niño

The Galápagos Archipelago lies within the Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean at the convergence of major ocean currents that are subject to changes in circulation. The nutrient-rich Equatorial Undercurrent upwells from the west onto the Galápagos platform, stimulating primary production, but this source of deep water weakens during El Niño events. Based on measurements from repeat cruises, the 2015/16 El Niño was associated with declines in phytoplankton biomass at most sites throughout the archipelago and reduced utilization of nitrate, particularly in large-sized phytoplankton in the western region. Protistan assemblages were identified by sequencing the V4 region of the 18S rRNA gene. Dinoflagellates, chlorophytes and diatoms dominated most sites. Shifts in dinoflagellate communities were most apparent between the years; parasitic dinoflagellates, Syndiniales, were highly detected during the El Niño (2015) while the dinoflagellate genus, Gyrodinium, increased at many sites during the neutral period (2016). Variations in protistan communities were most strongly correlated with changes in subthermocline water density. These findings indicate that marine protistan communities in this region are regimented by deep water mass sources and thus could be profoundly affected by altered ocean circulation.     

High molecular weight dissolved organic matter enrichment selects for methylotrophs in dilution to extinction cultures

The role of bacterioplankton in the cycling of marine dissolved organic matter (DOM) is central to the carbon and energy balance in the ocean, yet there are few model organisms available to investigate the genes, metabolic pathways, and biochemical mechanisms involved in the degradation of this globally important carbon pool. To obtain microbial isolates capable of degrading semi-labile DOM for growth, we conducted dilution to extinction cultivation experiments using seawater enriched with high molecular weight (HMW) DOM. In total, 93 isolates were obtained. Amendments using HMW DOM to increase the dissolved organic carbon concentration 4x (280 μM) or 10x (700 μM) the ocean surface water concentrations yielded positive growth in 4–6% of replicate dilutions, whereas <1% scored positive for growth in non-DOM-amended controls. The majority (71%) of isolates displayed a distinct increase in cell yields when grown in increasing concentrations of HMW DOM. Whole-genome sequencing was used to screen the culture collection for purity and to determine the phylogenetic identity of the isolates. Eleven percent of the isolates belonged to the gammaproteobacteria including Alteromonadales (the SAR92 clade) and Vibrio. Surprisingly, 85% of isolates belonged to the methylotrophic OM43 clade of betaproteobacteria, bacteria thought to metabolically specialize in degrading C1 compounds. Growth of these isolates on methanol confirmed their methylotrophic phenotype. Our results indicate that dilution to extinction cultivation enriched with natural sources of organic substrates has a potential to reveal the previously unsuspected relationships between naturally occurring organic nutrients and the microorganisms that consume them.     

Single-taxon field measurements of bacterial gene regulation controlling DMSP fate

The ‘bacterial switch'' is a proposed regulatory point in the global sulfur cycle that routes dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) to two fundamentally different fates in seawater through genes encoding either the cleavage or demethylation pathway, and affects the flux of volatile sulfur from ocean surface waters to the atmosphere. Yet which ecological or physiological factors might control the bacterial switch remains a topic of considerable debate. Here we report the first field observations of dynamic changes in expression of DMSP pathway genes by a single marine bacterial species in its natural environment. Detection of taxon-specific gene expression in Roseobacter species HTCC2255 during a month-long deployment of an autonomous ocean sensor in Monterey Bay, CA captured in situ regulation of the first gene in each DMSP pathway (dddP and dmdA) that corresponded with shifts in the taxonomy of the phytoplankton community. Expression of the cleavage pathway was relatively greater during a high-DMSP-producing dinoflagellate bloom, and expression of the demethylation pathway was greater in the presence of a mixed diatom and dinoflagellate community. These field data fit the prevailing hypothesis for bacterial DMSP gene regulation based on bacterial sulfur demand, but also suggest a modification involving oxidative stress response, evidenced as upregulation of catalase via katG, when DMSP is demethylated.