遗传谱系示踪技术揭示小鼠胚胎前体心外膜向心外膜转化过程

心外膜的形成是胚胎心脏发育的关键生理过程之一。利用遗传谱系示踪技术示踪观察前体心外膜向心外膜细胞转化过程,具有重要的科学研究价值。本研究拟利用Tbx18+前体/心外膜祖细胞遗传谱系示踪模型,揭示胚胎心外膜的起源及前体心外膜向心外膜转化的过程。利用整胚和切片原位杂交技术揭示,Tbx18 mRNA特异性表达于胚龄（E）9.5 d小鼠胚胎前体心外膜;故Tbx18是前体心外膜的特异性标记基因。利用整胚X-Gal染色,揭示报告基因Lacz在E9.5 d遗传谱系示踪模型鼠胚前体心外膜中大量表达,此时报告基因从前体心外膜逐渐迁移并开始少量表达于心外膜。Lacz在E10～E10.5 d双杂合鼠胚前体心外膜中表达逐渐减少,而在心外膜组织中逐渐增多;在E11.5 d,报告基因在前体心外膜中表达基本消失,而在心外膜组织中大量表达。切片进行X-Gal染色也揭示,报告基因Lacz定位于早期胚胎前体心外膜及心外膜。免疫荧光染色证实,早期胚胎心外膜细胞呈现未分化的祖细胞状态。通过报告基因的表达变化模式揭示,胚胎心外膜的形成经历了启动、转化、完成3个阶段;E9.5～11.5 d左右这个时间段发生的前体心外膜向心外膜转化,可能是心外膜形成的主要来源和形式。     

杜鹃花科白珠树属分子系统学和生物地理学研究进展

白珠树属(Gaultheria) 在杜鹃花科(Ericaceae)系统演化中占有十分重要的地位, 其系统位置和演化关系一直备受争议。最近的分子系统学研究认为, 白珠树属已经不再属于传统上的越橘亚科(Vaccinioideae)的綟木族(Andromedeae), 而是与一些相关属组成了白珠树族(Gaultherieae)。对白珠树属产于美洲的类群和相关类群的分子系统学的初步研究则表明, 该属与Diplycosia、Tepuia和Pernettya等属(均为“常绿类群”)关系密切, 可能应将这几个属并入到白珠树属中, 但其属下分类系统关系还需要对产于亚洲的类群进行深入的研究后才能确定。白珠树属与其近缘属的进化历史和生物地理学关系较为复杂, 与杜鹃花科其他大多数属不同, 白珠树属为典型的环太平洋分布。关于白珠树属的起源问题存在两种不同的推测: 一种观点认为该属起源于南半球的冈瓦纳古陆; 另一种观点则认为其起源于北半球的劳亚古大陆。本文概述了近年来白珠树属的分子系统学和生物地理学研究进展, 并对该属尚存的一些问题进行了讨论。     

我国发现世界上最原始的鸟类化石

以中国地质科学院季强研究员为首的研究小组,不久前在河北丰宁晚中生代的地层中首次发现了世界上最原始的鸟类化石,研究人员已经将其正式命名为华美金凤鸟。有关这一新发现的初步研究成果已发表在今年3月出版的《地质通报》上,它标志着我国鸟类起源研究再次获得了重大进展并处于国际领先水平。     

中国蛭类动物生态地理类群特征及其防护医用研究进展

综述中国蛭类研究如下内容:(1)生态学.山蛭生态学,包括山蛭的生态分布,海南山蛭(H. hainana)的种群动态,对温度、土壤湿度和pH值的适应,以及对温、光、湿的综合反应和人类经济活动对其种群数量的影响;山蛭行为生态学,山蛭的运动包括慢缩短、快缩短、身体摆动和转动、洗刷运动、亲吻运动、觅食行为6程序,影响山蛭行为的一些因素以及对环境因素刺激的生态学意义;淡水水蛭生态学,包括浙江水田蛭类生活习性、广州水生光润金线蛭种群数量动态与水体化学因子关系、广州水田吸血菲牛蛭生活水体化学环境;山蛭和水生吸血菲牛蛭的觅食、生长动态、生命周期和生殖生物学;(2)形态学、分类学和动物地理学.形态学包括山蛭机能组织学、山蛭器官系统解剖;分类学,中国蛭类动物有2亚纲(蛭蚓亚纲、真蛭亚纲)、3目(蛭蚓目、吻蛭目、无吻目)、9科、33属、111种,占世界蛭类物种数约1/6;动物地理学,包括世界山蛭科属动物地理,中国山蛭科动物地理、中国医蛭科动物地理.(3)蛭类的防治和驱避,淡水吸血蛭类防治所用农药种类,不同农药对海南山蛭的毒力( LD50、LD95)及使用,并比较了12种驱避剂对海南山蛭的驱避效果.(4)蛭类的医学利用,蛭素是蛭类唾液腺分泌的一种抗凝物质,蛭素有水蛭素(Hirudin)、山蛭素(Haemadin)和吻蛭素(Hementin).记述了蛭素的分离、纯化和功能以及有关分子生物学内容.     

Fifty years of character compatibility concepts at work

In the mid 19th century,systematic biologists realized that observable similarities and differences among a group of related species could be the basis for hypotheses about the evolutionary relationships among the species and their ancestors.Such hypotheses Can be expressed as characters.A character is comprised of two or more character states of species considered to be similar with respect to a basis for comparison.The states of a character may also be arranged into a character state tree to hypothesize speciation events associated with changes from one character state to another.In the mid 20th century.some systematists realized that sometimes paxrs of characters(or character state trees)could be incompatible as hypotheses,i.e.,they could not both be true.Through the 1950s,'60s and'70s,tests for,and ways to resolve,incompatibilities were used to estimate an ancestor relation based on mutually compatible characters.An estimate was often shown as a diagram connecting ancestors to their immediate descendants(not quite correctly)called a phylogenetic tree.More recently,other applications of compatibility concepts have been developed,including:identify characters that appear to be random in the context of their data set;combine estimates of ancestor relations for subsets of taxa in a larger collection into a single estimate(a so-called supertree)for the whole collection;and interpret geographic patterns in an evolutionary context.     

基于叶绿体DNA trnL-F序列研究肋果沙棘的谱系地理学

由于青藏高原的地理效应,第四纪冰期气候的反复变化应对现今该地区生物的地理分布及其居群遗传结构产生重大影响。肋果沙棘Hippophae neurocarpa是青藏高原地区的一个特有种,根据叶上的附属物（星状鳞毛或者鳞片状鳞毛）分为两个亚种：肋果沙棘亚种subsp.neurocarpa和密毛肋果沙棘亚种subsp.stellatopilosa。依据母系遗传的叶绿体DNA片段对该物种谱系地理学进行研究不仅能阐明该物种冰期避难所,而且对于理解两个亚种的母系分化也具有重要意义。共对两个亚种14居群的70个个体的trnL-F序列进行了测序,共发现8种单倍型,其中5种单倍型出现在肋果沙棘亚种中,4种出现在密毛肋果沙棘亚种中,两个亚种共享一种单倍型。种内谱系分化与两个亚种形态上的分化不一致。嵌套进化分支把8种单倍型分为三支：一支为肋果沙棘亚种,其他两支中两个亚种单倍型嵌套组成,且肋果沙棘亚种处于进化末端。我们的研究结果还表明肋果沙棘在冰期可能在高海拔地区存在多个避难所,并且存在来自避难所的邻域扩张。     

中国瓦娄蜗牛属系统发育关系和动物地理学初探(肺螺亚纲,柄眼目,瓦娄蜗牛科)

运用支序分析方法和Hennig86软件探讨了柄眼目瓦娄蜗牛科瓦娄蜗牛属中国种类的系统发育关系。中国瓦娄蜗牛属种类现已知16种,主要分布于中国北部,也分布在亚洲北部和西部,欧洲大部以及北美东南部。选择Acan-thinual属的代表种A．aculeata作为外群。系统分析所用特征为瓦娄蜗牛届的19个形态学特征。运用命令mh^*;和bb^*;对原始数据集进行运算,并进行逐步加权处理,结果共得到步长＝102,CI值＝61,RI值＝83的同等简约树一株。选择该树作为支序分析的首选支序图。支序分析的结果初步将中国瓦娄蜗牛属的16个种分为两群：西部瓦娄蜗牛群和东部瓦娄蜗牛群。运用扩散-隔离分析方法对该属的动物地理学进行了分析和讨论,认为瓦娄蜗牛居中国种类现有分布格局的形成可能是在中新世以前主要由该属的祖先在其起源地内蒙古一带逐步向现有分布地扩散的结果。     

分子生态学研究揭示中国飞蝗种群的进化关系

飞蝗是一种重要农业害虫,具有很强的迁飞能力,其分布区比任何其他蝗虫都更广阔,几乎覆盖了东半球的整个温、热带地区。然而,基于生物学或形态学差异,飞蝗仅在中国就鉴定出了3个亚种,而在世界范围内则存在至少9个亚种———这跟其迁飞能力是相矛盾的,学术界对此也一直存留争议。张德兴教授的研究团队（中国科学院动物研究所分子生态学和进化研究组）运用分子生态学的研究手段,从多个独立微卫星DNA位点对覆盖飞蝗中国分布区的25个样点的1300多个标本进行综合分析。他们发现,尽管飞蝗具有很强的迁飞扩散能力,中国的飞蝗确实分为北方种群、南方种群和西藏种群3个具有显著遗传差别的种群,但是与传统认识不同的是,广布于中国中、东部的飞蝗并非东亚飞蝗,而是应隶属于亚洲飞蝗亚种。该研究成果一方面验证了飞蝗经典分类的一些结论,另一方面则指出对由Boris Petrovitch Uvarov（1889~1970）（被学界誉为“蝗虫之父”）在20世纪30年代建立的关于东亚飞蝗的有关权威观点进行修正的必要性。该研究团队还进一步分析飞蝗在中国形成和维持3个具有显著遗传差别的种群的原因,指出：历史生物地理学因素可能是导致形成这3个地理种群的关键原因,特别是更...     

Eastern Asian endemic seed plant genera and their paleogeographic history throughout the Northern Hemisphere

We review the fossil history of seed plant genera that are now endemic to eastern Asia. Although the majority of eastern Asian endemic genera have no known fossil record at all, 54 genera, or about 9%, are reliably known from the fossil record. Most of these are woody （with two exceptions）, and most are today either broadly East Asian, or more specifically confined to Sino-Japanese subcategory rather than being endemic to the Sino-Himalayan area. Of the ＂eastern Asian endemic＂ genera so far known from the fossil record, the majority formerly occurred in Europe and/or North America, indicating that eastern Asia served as a late Tertiary or Quaternary refugium for taxa. Hence, many of these genera may have originated in other parts of the Northern Hemisphere and expanded their ranges across continents and former sea barriers when tectonic and climatic conditions allowed, leading to their arrival in eastern Asia. Although clear evidence for paleoendemism is provided by the gymnosperms Amentotaxus, Cathaya, Cephalotaxus, Cunninghamia, Cryptomeria, Glyptostrobus, Ginkgo, Keteleeria, Metasequoia, Nothotsuga, Pseudolarix, Sciadopitys, and Taiwania, and the angiosperms Cercidiphyllum, Choerospondias, Corylopsis, Craigia, Cyclocarya, Davidia, Dipelta, Decaisnea, Diplopanax, Dipteronia, Emmenopterys, Eucommia, Euscaphis, Hemiptelea, Hovenia, Koelreuteria, Paulownia, Phellodendron, Platycarya, Pteroceltis, Rehderodendron, Sargentodoxa, Schizophragma, Sinomenium, Tapiscia, Tetracentron, Toricellia, Trapella, and Trochodendron, we cannot rule out the possibility that neoendemism plays an important role especially for herbaceous taxa in the present-day flora of Asia, particularly in the Sino-Himalayan region. In addition to reviewing paleobotanical occurrences from the literature, we document newly recognized fossil occurrences that expand the geographic and stratigraphic ranges previously known for Dipelta, Pteroceltis, and Toricellia.     

Phylogenetics and biogeography of eastern Asian-North American disjunct genus Pachysandra （Buxaceae） inferred from nucleotide sequences

Pachysandra is an eastern Asian-North American disjtunct genus with three species, two in eastern Asia （Pachysandra axillaris and Pachysandra terminalis） and one in eastern North America （Pachysandra procurnbens）. Although morphological and cytological studies suggest a close affinity of Pprocumbens with P axillaris, molecular data from nuclear and chloroplast DNA regions have provided conflicting signals. In this study, we tested previous phylogenetic hypotheses using sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacers and chloroplast ndhF gene from multiple individuals of each of the three species. We also estimated the time of divergence between eastem Asia and eastern North America. Our results support the morphological and cytological conclusion that P procumbens is more closely related to P axillaris than to P terminalis. The estimated time of divergence of P axillaris and P procumbens was 14.6±5.5 mya, consistent with estimates from many other eastern Asian-North American disjunct genera. The migration of Pachysandra populations from eastern Asia to North America might have occurred by way of the North Atlantic land bridge.