A mast‐seeding desert shrub regulates population dynamics and behavior of its heteromyid dispersers

Granivorous rodent populations in deserts are primarily regulated through precipitation‐driven resource pulses rather than pulses associated with mast‐seeding, a pattern more common in mesic habitats. We studied heteromyid responses to mast‐seeding in the desert shrub blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima), a regionally dominant species in the Mojave–Great Basin Desert transition zone. In a 5‐year study at Arches National Park, Utah, USA, we quantified spatiotemporal variation in seed resources in mast and intermast years in blackbrush‐dominated and mixed desert vegetation and measured responses of Dipodomys ordii (Ord's kangaroo rat) and Perognathus flavescens (plains pocket mouse). In blackbrush‐dominated vegetation, blackbrush seeds comprised >79% of seed production in a mast year, but 0% in the first postmast year. Kangaroo rat abundance in blackbrush‐dominated vegetation was highest in the mast year, declined sharply at the end of the first postmast summer, and then remained at low levels for 3 years. Pocket mouse abundance was not as strongly associated with blackbrush seed production. In mixed desert vegetation, kangaroo rat abundance was higher and more uniform through time. Kangaroo rats excluded the smaller pocket mice from resource‐rich patches including a pipeline disturbance and also moved their home range centers closer to this disturbance in a year of low blackbrush seed production. Home range size for kangaroo rats was unrelated to seed resource density in the mast year, but resource‐poor home ranges were larger (P < 0.001) in the first postmast year, when resources were limiting. Blackbrush seeds are higher in protein and fat but lower in carbohydrates than the more highly preferred seeds of Indian ricegrass (Achnatherum hymenoides) and have similar energy value per unit of handling time. Kangaroo rats cached seeds of these two species in similar spatial configurations, implying that they were equally valued as stored food resources. Blackbrush mast is a key resource regulating populations of kangaroo rats in this ecosystem.     

Dominance in a ground‐dwelling ant community of banana agroecosystem

In tropical ecosystems, ants represent a substantial portion of the animal biomass and contribute to various ecosystem services, including pest regulation and pollination. Dominant ant species are known to determine the structure of ant communities by interfering in the foraging of other ant species. Using bait and pitfall trapping experiments, we performed a pattern analysis at a fine spatial scale of an ant community in a very simplified and homogeneous agroecosystem, that is, a single‐crop banana field in Martinique (French West Indies). We found that the community structure was driven by three dominant species (Solenopsis geminata, Nylanderia guatemalensis, and Monomorium ebeninum) and two subdominant species (Pheidole fallax and Brachymyrmex patagonicus). Our results showed that dominant and subdominant species generally maintained numerical dominance at baits across time, although S. geminata, M. ebeninum, and B. patagonicus displayed better abilities to maintain dominance than P. fallax and N. guatemalensis. Almost all interspecific correlations between species abundances, except those between B. patagonicus and N. guatemalensis, were symmetrically negative, suggesting that interference competition prevails in this ground‐dwelling ant community. However, we observed variations in the diurnal and nocturnal foraging activity and in the daily occurrence at baits, which may mitigate the effect of interference competition through the induction of spatial and temporal niche partitioning. This may explain the coexistence of dominant, subdominant, and subordinate species in this very simplified agroecosystem, limited in habitat structure and diversity.     

Experimental evolution of the grain of metabolic specialization in yeast

Adaptation to any given environment may be accompanied by a cost in terms of reduced growth in the ancestral or some alternative environment. Ecologists explain the cost of adaptation through the concept of a trade‐off, by which gaining a new trait involves losing another trait. Two mechanisms have been invoked to explain the evolution of trade‐offs in ecological systems, mutational degradation, and functional interference. Mutational degradation occurs when a gene coding a specific trait is not under selection in the resident environment; therefore, it may be degraded through the accumulation of mutations that are neutral in the resident environment but deleterious in an alternative environment. Functional interference evolves if the gene or a set of genes have antagonistic effects in two or more ecologically different traits. Both mechanisms pertain to a situation where the selection and the alternative environments are ecologically different. To test this hypothesis, we conducted an experiment in which 12 experimental populations of wild yeast were each grown in a minimal medium supplemented with a single substrate. We chose 12 different carbon substrates that were metabolized through similar and different pathways in order to represent a wide range of ecological conditions. We found no evidence for trade‐offs between substrates on the same pathway. The indirect response of substrates on other pathways, however, was consistently negative, with little correlation between the direct and indirect responses. We conclude that the grain of specialization in this case is the metabolic pathway and that specialization appears to evolve through mutational degradation.     

昆虫几丁质酶基因家族功能研究进展

昆虫几丁质酶的研究历史很长,研究内容也非常广泛;但仅局限于传统的方法研究某个昆虫单个基因的功能及应用。近年来,随着生物信息学和RNAi技术在生命科学研究工作中的广泛应用,在昆虫几丁质酶的研究方面也取得了较大进展。本文主要以生物信息学在几丁质酶家族基因鉴定和分类研究过程中的应用,以及利用RNAi技术分析几丁质酶不同家族成员在赤拟谷盗和褐飞虱两种昆虫生长发育中的功能比较分析,对全面认识昆虫几丁质酶基因家族功能和作用机理,并利用几丁质酶基因防治害虫奠定良好的基础。     

火烧及微地貌对高原湿草甸优势种华扁穗草地上部灰分含量及热值的影响

为探讨火烧干扰以及微地貌差异对高原湿草甸植被的影响,以高原湿草甸优势种华扁穗草( Blysmus sinocompressus Tang et F. T. Wang)为研究对象,分别在经历火烧干扰和未烧的湿地中选择平地和地垄作为样地,研究了不同生长期以及不同年份华扁穗草地上部的灰分含量和热值(包括干质量热值和去灰分热值)变化。结果表明：在火烧平地、火烧地垄、未烧平地和未烧地垄4类样地中,不同生长期以及不同年份间华扁穗草地上部的灰分含量和热值均有一定差异。在火烧平地、火烧地垄和未烧平地3类样地中,与生长初期相比,生长旺盛期华扁穗草地上部的灰分含量均降低,其干质量热值和去灰分热值均升高;而在未烧地垄样地中,与生长初期相比,生长旺盛期华扁穗草地上部的灰分含量显著升高,其干质量热值和去灰分热值则均略降低。从样地类型看,在生长旺盛期,平地样地中华扁穗草地上部的灰分含量均低于地垄样地,其干质量热值和去灰分热值均高于地垄样地,其中,其灰分含量在火烧平地样地中最低、在未烧地垄样地中最高;其干质量热值和去灰分热值在火烧地垄样地中均最低、在未烧平地样地中均最高,但总体无显著差异。随时间推移,火烧样地特别是火烧平地样地中华扁穗草地上部的灰分含量增加,而其干质量热值和去灰分热值则有所降低但总体上与未烧样地间无显著差异。总体上看,在火烧样地中,华扁穗草地上部的干质量热值和去灰分热值低于未烧样地;而在平地样地中,其干质量热值和去灰分热值高于地垄样地。研究结果显示：火烧干扰和微地貌差异对华扁穗草地上部的灰分含量和热值均有一定的影响,据此,建议将植物地上部的灰分含量和热值作为高原湿草甸植被优势种响应环境扰动的参考指标。     

RNAi Transfection Results in Lipidome Changes

RNAi experiments are ubiquitously used in cell biology and are achieved by transfection of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) into cells using a transfection reagent. These results in knock‐down of proteins of interest, and the phenotypic consequences are then analyzed. It is reported here that two common RNA interference (RNAi) transfection reagents, DharmaFECT 1 and INTERFERin, in mock transfections using non‐targeting siRNAs, cause alterations in the lipidome of HeLa cells. Some lipids change in response to both, presumably chemically different, transfection reagents, while other lipid species change only in response to one of the reagents. While the functional implications of these lipidomic alterations remain to be investigated, the authors' experiments suggest that it is important to use appropriate mock transfection controls during RNAi experiments, ideally complemented by an orthogonal perturbation, especially when investigating membrane‐associated phenomena.