Morphological canalization,integration, and plasticity in response to population density in Abutilon theophrasti: Influences of soil conditions and growth stages

Phenotypic integration and developmental canalization have been hypothesized to constrain the degree of phenotypic plasticity, but little evidence exists, probably due to the lack of studies on the relationships among the three processes, especially for plants under different environments. We conducted a field experiment by subjecting plants of Abutilon theophrasti to three densities, under infertile and fertile soil conditions, and analyzing correlations among canalization, integration, and plasticity in a variety of measured morphological traits after 50 and 70 days, to investigate the relationships among the three variables in response to density and how these responses vary with soil conditions and growth stages. Results showed trait canalization decreased and phenotypic integration and the degree of plasticity (absolute plasticity) in traits increased with density. Phenotypic integration often positively correlated with absolute plasticity, whereas correlations between trait canalization and plasticity were insignificant in most cases, with a few positive ones between canalization and absolute plasticity at low and medium densities. As plants grew, these correlations intensified in infertile soil and attenuated in fertile soil. Our findings suggested the complexity of the relationship between canalization and plasticity: Decreased canalization is more likely to facilitate active plastic responses under more favorable conditions, whereas increased level of integration should mainly be an outcome of plastic responses. Soil conditions and growth stage may affect responses of these correlations to density via modifying plant size, competition strength, and plastic responses in traits. We also predicted that decreased canalization can be advantageous or disadvantageous, and the lack of response to stress may demonstrate a stronger ability of adaptation than passive response, thus should be adaptive plasticity as active response.     

光皮桦6个南方天然群体的遗传多样性

为揭示中国特有珍贵用材树种光皮桦(Betula luminifera)天然群体的遗传多样性和遗传结构, 采用AFLP分子标记, 分析了采自浙江、福建、江西、广西和贵州5个省区6个天然群体的120份样品。9对引物获得了355个位点, 其中多态性位点323个。分析结果表明光皮桦天然群体具有较高的遗传多样性, 多态位点百分率(PPL)达90.99%, 各群体的PPL和Nei’s基因多样性(h_j)分别为93.20-98.60%和0.3143-0.3645; 总群体遗传多样性指数(H_t)为0.3616, 群体间遗传分化系数(F_st)为0.0650, 群体间总的基因流较高(N_m= 3.5962)。AMOVA分析表明群体间的遗传变异占总变异的11.49%, 浙江临安群体和贵州修文群体间的遗传距离最大(0.0665), 江西龙南群体和广西龙胜群体间的遗传距离最小(0.0173), 且遗传结构分析显示这两个群体的部分个体可能来自同一近祖。Mantel检测发现, 群体间的遗传距离与地理距离没有显著相关性(r = 0.423, P = 0.113), 而与两两群体所在地的均温差呈显著相关(r = 0.449, P = 0.017)。结合群体实地调查, 可以得出光皮桦天然群体的遗传多样性和遗传结构的形成不仅与其广域分布、自然杂交、种子特性以及生活史有关, 而且与群体被人为砍伐、生境片断化等因素有重要关系。基于上述结果我们提出了光皮桦天然种群的保护策略。     

Marginal Land-based Biomass Energy Production in China

Fast economic development in China has resulted in a significant increase in energy demand. Coal accounts for 70% of China's primary energy consumption and its combustion has caused many environmental and health problems. Energy security and environmental protection requirements are the main drivers for renewable energy development in China. Small farmland and food security make bioenergy derived from corn or sugarcane unacceptable to China: the focus should be on generating bioenergy from ligno-cellulosic feedstock sources. As China cannot afford biomass energy production from its croplands, marginal lands may play an important role in biomass energy production. Although on a small scale, marginal land has already been used for various purposes. It is estimated that some 45 million hm² of marginal land could be brought into high potential biomass energy production. For the success of such an initiative, it will likely be necessary to develop multipurpose plants. A case study, carried out on marginal land in Ningnan County, Sichuan Province with per capita cropland of 0.07 ha, indicated that some 380 000 tons of dry biomass could be produced each year from annual pruning of mulberry trees. This study supports the feasibility of producing large quantities of biomass from marginal land sources.     

Nimbolide ameliorates the streptozotocin-induced diabetic retinopathy in rats through the inhibition of TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway

BackgroundDiabetic retinopathy (DR) is a common problem in the diabetic patients due to the high blood glucose level. DR affects more number of diabetic patients worldwide with irreversible vision loss.ObjectiveThe current investigation was focused to reveal the therapeutic actions of nimbolide against the streptozotocin (STZ)-provoked DR in rats through inhibition of TLR4/NF-κB pathway.MethodologyDR was provoked to the rats through administering a single dose of STZ (60 mg/kg) intraperitoneally. The DR rats were then supplemented with the 50 mg/kg of nimbolide for 60 days. The bodyweight and blood glucose level was measured using standard methods. The lipid profiles (cholesterol, TG, LDL, and HDL), inflammatory markers, and antioxidants level was detected using respective kits. The level of MCP-1, VEGF, and MMP-9 was quantified using kits. The morphometric analysis of retinal tissues were done. The mRNA expressions of target genes were studied using RT-PCR assay.ResultsNimbolide treatment effective decreased the food intake and blood glucose, and improved the bodyweight of STZ-provoked animals. The levels of pro-inflammatory mediators, cholesterol, TG, LDL, and HDL, MCP-1, VEGF, and MMP-9 was remarkably suppressed by the nimbolide treatment. Nimbolide also improved the antioxidants, retinal thickness and cell numbers. The TLR4/NF-κB pathway was appreciably inhibited by the nimbolide.ConclusionOverall, our findings demonstrated that the nimbolide attenuated the STZ-provoked DR in rats through inhibiting the TLR4/NF-κB pathway.     

Climatic‐niche evolution with key morphological innovations across clades within Scutiger boulengeri (Anura: Megophryidae)

The studies of climatic‐niche shifts over evolutionary time accompanied by key morphological innovations have attracted the interest of many researchers recently. We applied ecological niche models (ENMs), ordination method (environment principal component analyses; PCA‐env), combined phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs), and phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS) regression methods to analyze the realized niche dynamics and correspondingly key morphological innovations across clades within Scutiger boulengeri throughout their distributions in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) margins of China. Our results show there are six clades in S. boulengeri and obvious niche divergences caused by niche expansion in three clades. Moreover, in our system, niche expansion is more popular than niche unfilling into novel environmental conditions. Annual mean temperature, annual precipitation, and precipitation of driest month may contribute to such a shift. In addition, we identified several key climatic factors and morphological traits that tend to be associated with niche expansion in S. boulengeri clades correspondingly. We found phenotypic plasticity [i.e., length of lower arm and hand (LAHL), hind‐limb length (HLL), and foot length (FL)] and evolutionary changes [i.e., snout–vent length (SVL)] may together contribute to niche expansion toward adapting novel niche, which provides us a potential pattern of how a colonizing toad might seed a novel habitat to begin the process of speciation and finally adaptive radiation. For these reasons, persistent phylogeographic divisions and accompanying divergences in niche occupancy and morphological adaption suggest that for future studies, distinct genetic structure and morphological changes corresponding to each genetic clade should be included in modeling niche evolution dynamics, but not just constructed at the species level.     

Identification and validation of reference genes for Populus euphratica gene expression analysis during abiotic stresses by quantitative real‐time PCR

Populus euphratica is the only arboreal species that is established in the world's largest shifting‐sand desert in China and is well‐adapted to the extreme desert environment, so it is widely considered a model system for researching into abiotic stress resistance of woody plants. However, few P. euphratica reference genes (RGs) have been identified for quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR) until now. Validation of suitable RGs is essential for gene expression normalization research. In this study, we screened 16 endogenous candidate RGs in P. euphratica leaves in six abiotic stress treatments, including abscisic acid (ABA), cold, dehydration, drought, short‐duration salt (SS) and long‐duration salt (LS) treatments, each with 6 treatment gradients. After calculation of PCR efficiencies, three different software tools, NormFinder, geNorm and BestKeeper, were employed to analyze the qRT‐PCR data systematically, and the outputs were merged by means of a non‐weighted unsupervised rank aggregation method. The genes selected as optimal for gene expression analysis of the six treatments were RPL17 (ribosomal protein L17) in ABA, EF1α (elongation factor‐1 alpha) in cold, HIS (histone superfamily protein H3) in dehydration, GIIα in drought and SS, and TUB (tubulin) in LS. The expression of 60S (the 60S ribosomal protein) varied the least during all treatments. To illustrate the suitability of these RGs, the relative quantifications of three stress‐inducible genes, PePYL1, PeSCOF‐1 and PeSCL7 were investigated with different RGs. The results, calculated using qBasePlus software, showed that compared with the least‐appropriate RGs, the expression profiles normalized by the recommended RGs were closer to expectations. Our study provided an important RG application guideline for P. euphratica gene expression characterization.     

Specific expression of the human voltage-gated proton channel Hv1 in highly metastatic breast cancer cells, promotes tumor progression and metastasis

The newly discovered human voltage-gated proton channel Hv1 is essential for proton transfer, which contains a voltage sensor domain (VSD) without a pore domain. We report here for the first time that Hv1 is specifically expressed in the highly metastatic human breast tumor tissues, but not in poorly metastatic breast cancer tissues, detected by immunohistochemistry. Meanwhile, real-time RT-PCR and immunocytochemistry showed that the expression levels of Hv1 have significant differences among breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468, MDA-MB-453, T-47D and SK-BR-3, in which Hv1 is expressed at a high level in highly metastatic human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231, but at a very low level in poorly metastatic human breast cancer cell line MCF-7. Inhibition of Hv1 expression in the highly metastatic MDA-MB-231 cells by small interfering RNA (siRNA) significantly decreases the invasion and migration of the cells. The intracellular pH of MDA-MB-231 cells down-regulated Hv1 expression by siRNA is obviously decreased compared with MDA-MB-231 with the scrambled siRNA. The expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 and gelatinase activity in MDA-MB-231 cells suppressed Hv1 by siRNA were reduced. Our results strongly suggest that Hv1 regulates breast cancer intracellular pH and exacerbates the migratory ability of metastatic cells.     

Human amelogenin up-regulates osteogenic gene expression in human bone marrow stroma cells

Extracts of enamel matrix proteins are used to regenerate periodontal tissues. Amelogenin, the most abundant enamel protein, plays an important role in the regeneration of these tissues. However, the molecular mechanisms by which amelogenin contributes to periodontal regeneration remain unknown. Using primary human bone marrow stroma cells (hBMSCs) transduced with lentivirus encoding human amelogenin (hAm), we performed genome-wide expression profiling to analyze the effects of hAm transduction on the regulation of genes involved in osteogenic differentiation. Our results revealed that BMP-2, BMP-6, OPN and VEGFC were up-regulated. These results suggest that hAm may be a key element in regulating hBMSCs osteogenic differentiation.     

Synthesis, crystal structure and magnetic properties of cubane and linear trinuclear nickel complexes formed by 3,5-dichloro-2-hydroxybenzylaminoacetic acid

The reaction of Ni(ClO₄)₂·6H₂O with 3,5-dichloro-2-hydroxy-benzylaminoacetic acid (H₂dchaa), NaN₃ and triethylamine in methanol solution or water solution under solvothermal methods leads to the formation of two completely different Ni^II compounds: [HN(C₂H₅)₃]₈·[Ni₄(dchaa)₄(N₃)₄]₂ (1) and [HN(C₂H₅)₃]₂·[Ni₃(dchaa)₄(H₂O)₄]₂·(H₂O)₂ (2). The complexes 1 and 2 have been characterized by elemental analyses, IR spectra and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Structure analyses reveal that complex 1 is a cubane cluster, while the complex 2 is a linear trinuclear cluster. The magnetic investigation shows that complexes 1 and 2 exhibit a ferromagnetic coupling between Ni^II ions. Ac susceptibilities of 1 and 2 reveal no frequency-dependent out-of-phase signals and the corresponding magnetic properties were discussed.     

Genome sequence of Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain F2, a bioflocculant-producing bacterium

Agrobacterium tumefaciens F2 is an efficient bioflocculant-producing bacterium. But the genes related to the metabolic pathway of bioflocculant biosynthesis in strain F2 are unknown. We present the draft genome of A. tumefaciens F2. It could provide further insight into the biosynthetic mechanism of polysaccharide-like bioflocculant in strain F2.