Genital morphology and taxonomy of the water strider Aquarius remigis (Say) (Insecta, Hemiptera-Heteroptera: Gerridae)

The shape of the dorsal vesical plate was used to determine the extent of morphological differentiation among populations of the water strider Aquarius remigis (Say) (Hemiptera-Heteroptera: Gerridae), and between species assigned to the A. remigis species group. Populations were sampled throughout North America and Mesoamerica, and included paratypes of A. remigoides Gallant & Fairbairn, and material collected from the type localities of A. amplus (Drake & Harris) and A. nyctalis (Drake & Hottes). If taxonomy is to be inferred from the shape of the dorsal vesical plate, as suggested by previous authors, several taxonomic issues need to be reconsidered. First, there was one species distributed widely across North America and deep into Mexico that is very likely to represent A. remigis , meaning that populations from the western USA previously assigned to ' A. nyctalis ' should be synonymized with this species. Second, A. remigoides as currently defined also includes some populations of A. remigis , and is probably much less widely distributed in the south-eastern USA than previously thought. A hybridization zone in Pennsylvania between A. remigis and A. remigoides , as inferred from measurements of body size and allozyme electrophoresis, is not congruent with data from the male genitalia, which indicated a transition zone between the two forms in Virginia much further to the south. Finally, A. amplus was widespread in Mexico, reaching into Guatemala to the south and into Arizona to the north.  © 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2007, 90 , 381–398.     

Weed performance in crop rotations with and without leys and at different nitrogen levels

Weed populations were studied from a 26-year-old field experiment in southern Sweden with three different 6-year crop rotations, each with four rates of nitrogen application. The rotations differed in that one had a two-year legume-grass ley, another had a two-year grass ley, and that the third had spring wheat followed by a repeatedly harrowed fallow. The leys and the fallow were followed by turnip rape, winter wheat, oats and barley which was undersown in the two ley rotations. Data on weed biomass, collected in one season, were subjected to multivariate analysis.
Winter turnip rape had the highest weed biomass. However, of the several weed species, only Matricaria perforata Merat was important in wheat (the crop following turnip rape in the rotation). The weed flora did not differ consistently between rotations. We conclude that none of the three rotations had developed any major weed problems under the past weed management regime (herbicides applied to cereal crops).
There was no consistent effect of nitrogen fertilisation on total weed biomass in any of the three rotations. However, when comparing the weed floras in winter wheat, turnip rape and oats, the unfertilised plots differed from the plots receiving nitrogen. In the two latter crops, the abundant, low-growing annual Stellaria media (L.) Vil. performed best in fertilised plots with dense stands. Equisetum arvense L., the most abundant perennial weed, was important only in unfertilised plots.     

Multiphasic Hexose Uptake in Chlorella

The model proposed by E. Komor and W. Tanner for hexose proton cotransport in Chlorella (Planta 123: 195–198. 1975) is shown to be incorrect. Their data cannot represent hexose uptake via a protonated and a deprotonated form of the carrier, but may be precisely represented by a single bi- or triphasic mechanism.     

Experimental manipulation of water and nutrient input to a Norway spruce plantation at Klosterhede,Denmark

Water and nutrient supply to forest trees are major factors controlling tree growth and forest vitality. Therefore, changes in the supply of water and nutrients to the trees may be important contributing reasons to the forest damages observed in Europe. Such changes may be caused by several factors, e.g. air pollution, soil acidification and climate change. The present study investigates possible effects on tree growth, growth related parameters and nutrition related to changes in the water and nutrient supply. Water and nutrient supply to the forest soil was manipulated in three roof covered plots. The treatments consisted of 1) summer drought, 2) irrigation and 3) combined irrigation and fertilizer application (fertigation). The results from the roof covered treatment plots were compared to a control plot without roof. Increased supply of water during the spring and early summer increased the diameter growth, whereas application of nutrients in addition to irrigation had no additional effect on tree growth. Addition of nutrients increased the needle content of P, Mn, Ca and Mg. Extended summer drought for 2 months had no effect on the tree growth or other growth parameters, but drought reduced the root development in the upper soil layer. Furthermore, drought induced significant stress symptoms by increasing the cone shredding substantially.     

Separation of galactolipid molecular species by high-performance liquid chromatography

A technique for the separation, detection, and quantification of molecular species of monogalactosyldiglyceride and digalactosyldiglyceride is described. Use of the technique to analyze the molecular species composition of the galactolipids isolated from Dunaliella salina chloroplasts is presented. The results indicate that the respective compositions of the two lipids are quite different. This suggests that the enzymes involved in galactolipid metabolism are very specific with respect to acyl chain composition and pairing, or that extensive retailoring of constituent acyl chains occurs following formation of digalactosyldiglyceride from monogalactosyldiglyceride.     

Serotonin receptors induced by exogenous messenger RNA in Xenopus oocytes

When poly(A)+-mRNA, extracted from rat brain, was injected into Xenopus laevis oocytes, it induced the appearance of serotonin receptors in the oocyte membrane. Application of serotonin to injected oocytes elicited, after a long delay, oscillations in membrane current. The equilibrium potential of this current corresponded with the chloride equilibrium potential. It appears that rat brain mRNA encodes the translation of serotonin receptors into the oocyte membrane. The combination of serotonin with these receptors leads to the opening of membrane channels.     

An intermediate state of fertilization involved in internalization of sperm components

The pathway of sperm entry during sea urchin fertilization was analyzed by using sperm covalently labeled with fluorescent and radioactive tracers. Sperm that have been covalently labeled on their surfaces with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) or a radioactive congener, diiodofluorescein isothiocyanate (¹²⁵IFC), transfer labeled components to the egg that persist throughout early development. In order to study the transfer of sperm components and their fate after fertilization, cytochalasin B-dependent inhibition of fertilization, previously shown to permit the cortical reaction of sea urchin eggs but block sperm pronuclear incorporation, was investigated. Under certain conditions cytochalasin B or D (CB or CD) results in about half of the activated eggs having both the sperm nucleus and the fluorescently labeled sperm components arrested apparently at the level of the egg plasma membrane. This arrest of internalization was reversed by removal of CB or CD, and the sperm derivatives entered the egg. When sperm were labeled noncovalently with ethidium bromide or rhodamine 123, fluorescence was transferred to the egg in the cytochalasin-inhibited state in a fashion similar to that found in normal fertilization; in both cases the sperm fluorescence disappeared within a few minutes of fertilization, due to the repartitioning of the noncovalent dyes into the egg cytoplasm. It is concluded that cytochalasin arrests fertilization at an intermediate step in which the sperm has fused with the egg to achieve cytoplasmic continuity, but in which the subsequent internalization of sperm components is inhibited. After removal of cytochalasins the fluorescent sperm components move from the egg surface to an internal site, a process that can be monitored by time-lapse video microscopy with an image intensifier to permit extended observations of sperm fluorescence. The cytoplasmic location of labeled sperm components was substantiated by autoradiography of early embryos fertilized with ¹²⁵IFC-labeled sperm; transfer of sperm components to an internal site was seen after fertilization of either sea urchin or mouse eggs. Taken together, the data suggest that the fate of the labeled sperm surface components, as well as that of the sperm nucleus, is to be transferred to the egg cytoplasm, and that this transfer is mediated by the actin-dependent cytoskeleton of the egg.     

Choline Uptake and Acetylcholine Synthesis in Synaptosomes: Investigations Using Two Different Labeled Variants of Choline

Abstract: Using sequential incubations in media of different K⁺ composition, we investigated the dynamics of choline (Ch) uptake and acetylcholine (ACh) synthesis in rat brain synaptosomal preparations, using two different deuterated variants of choline and a gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) assay for ACh and Ch. Synaptosomes were preincubated for 10 min in a Krebs medium with or without high K⁺ and with 2 μM-[²H₉]Ch. At the end of the preincubation all variants of ACh and Ch were measured in samples of the pellet and medium. In the second incubation (4 min) samples of synaptosomes were resuspended in normal or high K⁺ solutions containing [²H₄]Ch (2 μM) and all variants of ACh and Ch were measured in the pellet and medium at the end of this period. This protocol allowed us to compare the effects of preincubation in normal or high K⁺ solution on the metabolism during a second low or high K⁺ incubation of a [²H₉]Ch pool accumulated during the preincubation period. Moreover, we were able to compare and contrast the effects of this protocol on [²H₉]Ch metabolism versus [²H₄]Ch metabolism. The most striking result we obtained was that [²H₉]Ch that had been retained by the synaptosomes after the preincubation was not acetylated during a subsequent incubation in normal or high K⁺ media. This result suggests that if an intraterminal pool of Ch is involved in ACh synthesis, the size of this pool is below the limits of detection of our assay. We have confirmed the observation that a prior depolarizing incubation results in an enhanced uptake of Ch during a second incubation in normal K⁺ Krebs. Moreover, Ch uptake is stimulated by prior incubation under depolarizing conditions relative to normal preincubation when the second incubation is in a high K⁺ solution. These results are discussed in terms of current models of the regulation of ACh synthesis in brain.     

Altered in vitro phosphorylation of specific proteins accompanies fertilization of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus eggs

Protein phosphorylation in eggs of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus was examined by incubation of egg homogenates with γ[³²P]ATP. Individual phosphorylated proteins were detected by autoradiography after electrophoresis of the disaggregated proteins on SDS-polyacrylamide slab gels. Nearly all of the radioactivity was labile to treatment with pronase, but not to ribonuclease or hydroxylamine, suggesting it to be in the form of protein phosphoesters. The pH dependence for phosphorylation was broad, with cyclic 3′,5′-adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent phosphorylation optimal at pH 7.7. Phosphorylation of several protein species at pH 7.7 was altered in homogenates of fertilized eggs, when compared to that of unfertilized eggs. These relative increase or decreases in intensity detected by autoradiography were not accompanied by corresponding changes in protein staining of the gels, suggesting that the differences were not due to major shifts in overall protein composition. Most of the alterations in phosphorylation were evident in homogenates made within 5 min after fertilization and were stable until the first cell division. The alterations were also found with homogenates of eggs activated with the divalent ionophore A23187, and some, but not all were present following treatment with ammonia, under conditions that induce a partial metabolic activation of eggs. The results suggest that fertilization promotes alterations in the availability of phosphorylation sites in egg homogenates, or changes in the activity of the egg kinases toward specific protein substrates, that may play a role in the activation of egg metabolism.