Prototypic sequences for human repetitive DNA

Summary We report a collection of 53 prototypic sequences representing known families of repetitive elements from the human genome. The prototypic sequences are either consensus sequences or selected examples of repetitive sequences. The collection includes: prototypes for high and medium reiteration frequency interspersed repeats, long terminal repeats of endogenous retroviruses, alphoid repeats, telomere-associated repeats, and some miscellaneous repeats. The collection is annotated and available electronically.[/ap ]Offprint requests to: J. Jurka     

Characterization of species-specific repeated DNA sequences from B. nigra

Summary The construction and characterization of two genome-specific recombinant DNA clones from B. nigra are described. Southern analysis showed that the two clones belong to a dispersed repeat family. They differ from each other in their length, distribution and sequence, though the average GC content is nearly the same (45%). These B genome-specific repeats have been used to analyse the phylogenetic relationships between cultivated and wild species of the family Brassicaceae.     

Genome modifications in protoplast-derived tobacco plants: Contents of repetitive DNA sequences

Plasticity of the tobacco genome was studied by testing the DNAs of protoplast-derived regenerants with three different repetitive DNA sequences by the method of quantitative DNA/DNA hybridizations. A large population of 91 regenerants belonging to 35 different protoclones was analysed and a high degree of heterogeneity in the contents of the different DNA repeats was detected. The contents of middle repetitive sequences of two types were more stable or changed in the same direction, while the highly repetitive sequence varied independently and displayed a significant reduction in comparison with the two other sequences. Comparing the variation within the subpopulations of plants of the same clonal origin and the variation among the protoclones led to a conclusion that the pre-existing DNA variability in the starting plant material and/or thein vitro stress during the very early stages of protoclone regeneration played a decisive role in the formation of modified genomes in regenerants.     

The stability of foreign protein production in genetically modified plant cells

Summary The stability of foreign protein production in genetically engineered plant cells was studied. A cultured tobacco cell line was transformed with a chimeric molecule carrying a bacterial gene, ß-glucuronidase (GUS), under plant regulatory sequences. The specific GUS activity was monitored for 294 days with ten independently transformed cell lines either in the presence or the absence of selectable antibiotics. Specific GUS activity was stably maintained in five lines. About a two-to four-fold increase in the GUS activity was observed from three cell lines. The remaining two cell lines lost the activity within the first 70 to 210 days. The presence of antibiotics did not significantly alter the stability of the foreign protein production in all cell lines examined.     

鲤科鱼类6个正反交人工异源三倍体胚胎的染色体变化及其发育命运

采用静水压休克保留第二极体的方法,在鲤(♀)×鲢(?)、鲫(♀)×鲢(?)、白鲫(♀)×鲢(?)和鲢(♀)×鲤(?)、鲢(♀)×鲫(?)、鲢(♀)×白鲫(?)6个正反交组合中都诱导出了异源三倍体,但只有正交鲤(♀)×鲢(?)、鲫(♀)×鲢(?)和白鲫(♀)×鲢(?)3个处理组中整倍性的异源三倍体胚胎才有可能正常发育,孵化出苗;而反交鲢(♀)×鲤(?)、鲢(♀)×鲫(?)和鲢(♀)×白鲫(?)3个处理组中的异源三倍体胚胎在发育过程中不断发生染色体排除和丢失,形成非整倍体而死亡,只有少数雌核发育二倍体鲢才能孵化出苗。结果表明,鱼类人工异源三倍体胚胎的发育命运与杂交物种间的基因组大小有关。     

A predator prey model with age structure

A general predator-prey model is considered in which the predator population is assumed to have an age structure which significantly affects its fecundity. The model equations are derived from the general McKendrick equations for age structured populations. The existence, stability and destabilization of equilibria are studied as they depend on the prey's natural carrying capacity and the maturation periodm of the predator. The main result of the paper is that for a broad class of maturation functions positive equilibria are either unstable for smallm or are destabilized asm decreases to zero. This is in contrast to the usual rule of thumb that increasing (not decreasing) delays in growth rate responses cause instabilities.Research supported by National Science Foundation Grant No. MCS-7901307-01Research supported by National Scholarship for Study Abroad No. EDN/S-59/80 from the government of India     

Integral equation models for endemic infectious diseases

Summary Endemic infectious diseases for which infection confers permanent immunity are described by a system of nonlinear Volterra integral equations of convolution type. These constant-parameter models include vital dynamics (births and deaths), immunization and distributed infectious period. The models are shown to be well posed, the threshold criteria are determined and the asymptotic behavior is analysed. It is concluded that distributed delays do not change the thresholds and the asymptotic behaviors of the models.This work was partially supported by NIH Grant AI 13233.     

Persistence of predator-prey systems in an uncertain environment

Summary The time derivatives of prey and predator populations are assumed to satisfy a set of inequalities, instead of a precise differential equation, reflecting an uncertain environmental and/or lack of knowledge by the modeler. A system of differential equations is found whose solution gives the boundary of a persistent set, which is positive flow invariant for any system satisfying the inequalities. Conditions are given for the persistent set to be bounded away from both axes, which show that resonance effects cannot drive either predator or prey to extinction if that does not happen for an autonomous system satisfying the inequalities. In general predator-prey systems are more persistent when there is strong asymptotic stability, when there is correlation between prey and predator dynamics, when the effect of perturbations is density dependent, and are more persistent under perturbations of the prey than of the predator.     

Diversity and stability in garrigue ecosystems after fire

Summary Vegetation dynamics after fire was studied in six communities in Bas-Languedoc (Southern France). 47 plots were observed by means of a permanent transect for ten years.In the first part, we describe floristic richness, species fugacity and the way by which, the terminal community (as defined by the last observation) appears. The dynamics of all these communities follows a simple and general model: floristic richness reaches its maximum during the first two years after a fire, then decreases and becomes stable. Fugacity follows a similar model, whereas the mergence of the terminal community is rapid: one year after fire 70% of the plots have already acquired 75% of the species of the terminal community. There is no succession (in the general sense of the word), but a progressive reappearance of the species belonging to the original community.In the second part, we study floristic similarities between our plots and corresponding associations as described in literature. It appears that after a fire the floristic diversity of the landscape remains high; while the communities rapidly reach a relative maturity.In the study area fire seems to be a rather superficial phenomenon; it does not lead to an important modification of the community dynamics, because probably the most frequent species in Bas-Languedoc developed adaptations to withstand fire.     

Some analytical results about a simple reaction-diffusion system for morphogenesis

Summary The reaction-diffusion system considered involves only one nonlinear term and is a gradient system. In a bifurcation analysis for the equilibrium states, the global existence of infinitely many solution branches can be shown by the method of Ljusternik-Schnirelmann. Their stability is studied. Using a Ljapunov functional it can be shown that the solutions of the time-dependent system converge to the equilibrium states.