白马雪山国家级自然保护区典型森林生态系统服务

生态系统服务是近年来生态学研究的热点领域,对关键区域生态系统服务的研究具有重要意义.云南省白马雪山国家级自然保护区地处青藏高原南延部分,拥有独特的地理位置,是生物多样性保护的热点区域.本文对该保护区森林生态系统的生物量与生产力、水源涵养、营养物质循环等3项服务的功能量进行了评估.结果表明:保护区森林总生物量2215.86×104t,生产力171.84×104t·a-1;水源涵养量11964.56×104m3;N、P、K年吸收量分别为26025.94t、2638.57t、12016.85 t.研究表明,保护区森林生态效益显著,对于维持当地以及周边地区的生态安全具有重要意义.     

Dose-dependent effects of UVB-induced skin carcinogenesis in hairless p53 knockout mice

Exposure to (solar) UVB radiation gives rise to mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor gene that appear to contribute to the earliest steps in the molecular cascade towards human and murine skin cancer. To examine in more detail the role of p53, we studied UVB-induced carcinogenesis in hairless p53 knock-out mice. The early onset of lymphomas as well as early wasting of mice interfered with the development of skin tumors in p53 null-mice. The induction of skin tumors in the hairless p53+/- mice was accomplished by daily exposure to two different UV-doses of approximately 450 J/m2 and 900 J/m2 from F40 lamps corresponding to a fraction of about 0.4 and 0.8 of the minimal edemal dose. Marked differences in skin carcinogenesis were observed between the p53+/- mice and their wild type littermates. Firstly, at 900 J/m2, tumors developed significantly faster in the heterozygotes than in wild types, whereas at 450 J/m2 there was hardly any difference, suggesting that only at higher damage levels loss of one functional p53 allele is important. Secondly, a large portion (25%) of skin tumors in the heterozygotes were of a more malignant, poorly differentiated variety of squamous cell carcinomas, i.e. spindle cell carcinomas, a tumor type that was rarely observed in daily UV exposed wild type hairless mice. Thirdly, the p53 mutation spectrum in skin tumors in heterozygotes is quite different from that in wild types. Together these results support the notion that a point mutation in the p53 gene impacts skin carcinogenesis quite differently than allelic loss: the former is generally selected for in early stages of skin tumors in wild type mice, whereas the latter enhances tumor development only at high exposure levels (where apoptosis becomes more prevalent) and appears to increase progression (to a higher grade of malignancy) of skin tumors.     

Aquatic Francisella-like bacterium associated with mortality of intensively cultured hybrid striped bass Morone chrysops x M. saxatilis

The present study identifies an emerging disease associated with an aquatic Francisella-like bacterium that can cause mortality in hybrid striped bass Morone chrysops x M. saxatilis reared intensively in freshwater. Clinically affected fish were lethargic, had scattered haemorrhagic cutaneous lesions and diffuse gill pallor. The head kidney and spleen were markedly swollen and contained numerous interstitial granulomas; histological examination revealed small, pleomorphic Gram-negative coccobacilli within vacuolated cells. The bacterium could not be cultured from head kidney homogenates either with standard or enriched microbiological media or following inoculation of a Chinook salmon embryo (CHSE)-214 cell line. No amplification product was obtained from head kidney DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay using Piscirickettsia salmonis-specific primers. PCR analysis of infected head kidney homogenate with primers designed for the eubacterial 16S rRNA produced a single amplicon. Phylogenetic analysis of this DNA sequence demonstrated that the sequence aligned most closely with members of the genus Francisella, identified from tilapia Oreochromis spp. in Taiwan and an aquatic Francisella species that was recently isolated from the three-line grunt Parapristipoma trilineatum in Japan. This Francisella-like disease was transmitted to naive hybrid striped bass fingerlings by intraperitoneal injection of tissue homogenates prepared from a natural outbreak. All fish developed gross and histological lesions identical to those from natural outbreaks. Intracellular Gram-negative bacteria were observed within the cytoplasm of cells (presumably macrophages) within the granulomas, but bacteria were not recovered. The 16S DNA sequence of the bacterium obtained from tissues of experimentally infected fish was identical to that obtained from the fish used as infected donor tissue.     

Molecular Evidence for a Deep Clade of Dunnarts (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae: Sminthopsis)

Sminthopsis is the most speciose genus of living dasyurid marsupials and, along with its close relatives Antechinomys and Ningaui, constitutes the clade Sminthopsini. Phylogenetic relationships among the 23 species in this clade have been the subject of much morphological and molecular investigation, including a recent integration of penis morphology (in Sminthopsis) with molecular systematics. Several phylogenetic issues remain open, however, including the monophyly of Sminthopsis and branching order among early sminthopsin lineages. In this study, we revisit sminthopsin systematics with an expanded molecular data set, including new DNA sequences from mitochondrial (valine transfer-RNA and 16S ribosomal RNA) and nuclear (interphotoreceptor retinoid binding protein and beta-fibrinogen) loci, along with previously published sequences of cytochrome b, 12S ribosomal RNA, control region, and protamine P1. Our results again fail to establish the monophyly of Sminthopsis, but do provide a clearer resolution of early sminthopsin branching. Specifically, our phylogeny suggests three major groups of Sminthopsis species: S. longicaudata (perhaps the sister of Antechinomys); the Macroura species group of previous authors (S. crassicaudata, S. macroura, S. virginiae, S. douglasi, and S. bindi); and the remaining 13 species allied with the Murina species group. Our results depart from previous molecular findings by reuniting S. ooldea with the Murina group, while resolving S. psammophila as sister to the hairy-footed dunnarts (S. hirtipes and S. youngsoni). We suggest that this conflict traces to anomalous phylogenetic signal in previously published cytochrome b sequences. Penis morphology maps reasonably well onto our phylogeny, requiring parallel origination of only one of the ten morphotypes described for Sminthopsis.     

Development of a Real-Time PCR for Identification of Brachyspira Species in Human Colonic Biopsies

Background

Brachyspira species are fastidious anaerobic microorganisms, that infect the colon of various animals. The genus contains both important pathogens of livestock as well as commensals. Two species are known to infect humans: B. aalborgi and B. pilosicoli. There is some evidence suggesting that the veterinary pathogenic B. pilosicoli is a potential zoonotic agent, however, since diagnosis in humans is based on histopathology of colon biopsies, species identification is not routinely performed in human materials.

Methods

The study population comprised 57 patients with microscopic evidence of Brachyspira infection and 26 patients with no histopathological evidence of Brachyspira infection. Concomitant faecal samples were available from three infected patients. Based on publically available 16S rDNA gene sequences of all Brachyspira species, species-specific primer sets were designed. DNA was extracted and tested by real-time PCR and 16S rDNA was sequenced.

Results

Sensitivity and specificity for identification of Brachyspira species in colon biopsies was 100% and 87.7% respectively. Sequencing revealed B. pilosicoli in 15.4% of patients, B. aalborgi in 76.9% and a third species, tentatively named “Brachyspira hominis”, in 26.2%. Ten patients (12.3%) had a double and two (3.1%) a triple infection. The presence of Brachyspira pilosicoli was significantly associated with inflammatory changes in the colon-biopsy (p = 0.028).

Conclusions

This newly designed PCR allows for sub-differentiation of Brachyspira species in patient material and thus allows large-scaled surveillance studies to elucidate the pathogenicity of human Brachyspira infections. One-third of affected patients appeared to be infected with a novel species.