Evidence for the Presence of CDP-Ethanolamine: 1,2-diacyl-sn-glycerol Ethanolaminephosphotransferase in Rat Central Nervous System Myelin

Highly purified rat brain myelin isolated by two different procedures showed appreciable activity for CDP-ethanolamine: 1,2-diacyl-sn-glycerol ethanolaminephosphotransferase (EC 2.7.8.1). Specific activity was close to that of total homogenate and approximately 12-16% that of brain microsomes. Three other lipid-synthesizing enzymes, cerebroside sulfotransferase, lactosylceramide sialyltransferase, and serine phospholipid exchange enzyme, were found to have less than 0.5% the specific activity in myelin compared with microsomes. Washing the myelin with buffered salt or taurocholate did not remove the phosphotransferase, but activity was lost from both myelin and microsomes by treatment with Triton X-100. It resembled the microsomal enzyme in having a pH optimum of 8.5 and a requirement for Mn2+ and detergent, but differed in showing no enhancement with EGTA. The diolein Km was similar for the two membranes (2.5-4 x 10(-4) M), but the CDP-ethanolamine Km was lower for myelin (3-4 x 10(-5) M) than for microsomes (11 - 13 x 10(-5 M). Evidence is reviewed that this enzyme is able to utilize substrate from the axon in situ.     

The N protein of bacteriophage lambda, defined by its DNA sequence, is highly basic.

Nucleotide sequence has been determined for the restriction fragments and cloned DNA from the pL-N-tL1 region of bacteriophage lambda. A unique reading frame for the N gene is defined by the absence of natural nonsense codons and by the presence of seven nonsense codons generated by mutations in N. This reading frame is initiated at two alternative ATG codons, the second of which is probably the in vivo translation start. Reading is stopped at a single TAG codon. The protein coded is therefore 133 or, more probably, 107 amino acids long, rich in lysine, arginine and proline.     

Words matter: Reflections on language projects with chimpanzees and their implications

Beginning in the 1960s the first systematic projects dedicated to testing whether great apes could acquire some aspects of human language were conducted. The ape subjects demonstrated remarkable capacities to learn and use elements of either sign language or an artificial language. The results from research across several laboratories drew a mixture of excitement and skepticism, and critiques and debates have ensued since the earliest reports were published. This continues today. Terrace (2019, Nim: A chimpanzee who learned sign language. New York, NY: Columbia University Press) repeats many of the same points made decades earlier, and has added some additional critiques. That scientists hold different perspectives on what to conclude from ape language studies is expected. However, any conclusion one draws should be based upon available evidence, which we outline in this review. We also address the critiques offered by Terrace (2019), including the stance that apes cannot understand or use words. Focusing on symbol use by chimpanzees and bonobos we describe evidence that argues for understanding of words, including capacities for declarative communication and intersubjectivity found in these apes. We conclude that the many decades of research using a variety of symbol systems challenges the absolutist position that chimpanzees and bonobos cannot learn language or understand the concept of a word.     

OCCURRENCE OF PHYIWATED CHLOROPHYLL c IN ISOCHRYSIS GALBANA AND ISOCHRYSIS SP. (CLONE T-ISO) (PRYMNESIOPHYCEAE)1

The pigment composition of two clones of Isochrysis galbana Parke (CCMP 1323 and CCAP 927/1), and Isochrysis sp. (clone T-ISO) was analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography using a polymeric octadecylsilica column. Fluorescent peaks with retention times higher than chlorophyll a were detected for all three clones. The corresponding pigments were isolated and characterized in terms of their visible absorbance and fluorescence spectra. The pigments were similar to phytol-substituted chlorophyll c, previously isolated from Emiliania huxleyi (Lohm.) Hay and Mohler and other species containing chlmophyll c₃. The presence of phytol-substituted chlorophyll c in I. galbana which lacked chlorophyll c₃, increases the diversity of chlorophyll patterns for the Haptophyta, which can be grouped, at present, into six different pigment types. This is the jrst observation of a haptophyte containing the apolar phytylated chlorophyll c-like pigment but lacking chlorophyll c₃.     

树突状表皮T细胞在胸腺内发育的研究进展

树突状表皮T淋巴细胞(DETC),特异性分布在表皮组织内,在皮肤免疫监视,皮肤伤面愈合中发挥重要作用。小鼠DETC发育仅涉及胚胎14.5~18 d这一短暂时间窗,而后则不再产生这类细胞。本综述拟从DETC T细胞受体(TCR)基因重排特点及调控机制,DETC在胸腺中的阳性选择及调控机制等方面进行论述,以期对DETC发育的时空特异性有一个系统性的认识。     

江苏盐城湿地麋鹿冬季食性研究

2017年12月至2018年3月在江苏盐城湿地珍禽国家级自然保护区,利用粪便显微组织学分析技术结合野外直接观察法对麋鹿(Elaphurus davidianus)冬季食性和食物营养成分进行了分析。野外调查在7条样线上共收集228堆麋鹿粪便,组成14个复合样本进行分析。结果表明,麋鹿冬季食物来源于14科51种植物,其中,芦苇(Phragmites australis,23.09%)和互花米草(Spartina alterniflora,17.58%)为最主要食物,其次为盐地碱蓬(Suaeda salsa,6.50%)、白茅(Imperata cylindrica,5.36%)、獐毛(Aeluropus sinensis,4.90%)、苇状羊茅(Festucas arundinacea,3.83%)、扁秆藨草(Scirpus planiculmis,3.45%)、碱蓬(Suaeda glauca,3.27%)、碱茅(Puccinellia distans,3.12%)、黑麦草(Lolium perenne,2.60%)和茵陈蒿(Artemisia capillaris,2.60%)。麋鹿冬季食物以草本植物为主(96.73%),极少采食木本植物枝叶(3.27%)。被啃食植物中粗蛋白含量基本满足麋鹿越冬营养需求。     

Bag-of-words representation for biomedical time series classification

Automatic analysis of biomedical time series such as electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiographic (ECG) signals has attracted great interest in the community of biomedical engineering due to its important applications in medicine. In this work, a simple yet effective bag-of-words representation that is originally developed for text document analysis is extended for biomedical time series representation. In particular, similar to the bag-of-words model used in text document domain, the proposed method treats a time series as a text document and extracts local segments from the time series as words. The biomedical time series is then represented as a histogram of codewords, each entry of which is the count of a codeword appeared in the time series. Although the temporal order of the local segments is ignored, the bag-of-words representation is able to capture high-level structural information because both local and global structural information are well utilized. The performance of the bag-of-words model is validated on three datasets extracted from real EEG and ECG signals. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is not only insensitive to parameters of the bag-of-words model such as local segment length and codebook size, but also robust to noise.     

利用表型数据构建陆地棉核心种质

以5963份陆地棉种质资源为材料,根据品种主要突变性状和品种类型分组成11组群,在分组的基础上利用21个表型性状,用非加权类平均聚类分析法,构建了281份陆地棉核心种质,占全部种质资源总量的4.71%。利用不同性状的均值t测验、方差F测验、变异系数、多样性指数t检验、均值、极差、表型方差、变异系数、均值差异百分率、方差差异百分率、极差符合率、变异系数变化率、主成分分析等参数进行核心种质代表性检验和评价。结果表明,所构建的陆地棉核心种质可以代表全部种质的遗传多样性。     

Vegetation,herbivores and fires in savanna ecosystems: A network perspective

The dynamics of savanna ecosystems depends on the interplay between multiple factors such as grazing, browsing, fires, rainfall regime and interactions between grass and woody vegetation. In most modelling applications this interplay may not be fully understood because some of these drivers enter the models as dynamically independent factors. In this paper we consider such factors as dynamic variables. To analyze their interplay we focus on the structure of the interactive network of variables and exploit the properties of signed digraphs using the algorithm of Loop Analysis. Qualitative signed digraphs for the savanna ecosystem are developed and their predictions used to interpret patterns of abundance observed in case studies selected from the literature. The outcomes of this exercise unveil that: 1) the structure of the interactions is appropriate locus for the explanation of patterns observed in savannas; 2) signed digraph can help disentangling causative mechanisms by linking correlation patterns, source of change and network structure. This study highlights that central to the understanding of savanna dynamics is our ability to diagram the important relationships and understand how they interrelate with sources of variations to cause ecosystem change.     

A short LysM protein with high molecular diversity from an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus,Rhizophagus irregularis

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi form an intimate symbiosis with roots of more than 80% of land plants without eliciting a significant defense response, and how they do so is yet to be determined. Typically, plants mount a defense response upon sensing chitin in fungal walls, and to counteract this response, plant-pathogenic fungi secrete small effector proteins with chitin-binding LysM domains. In the AM fungus, Rhizophagus irregularis, a small, putatively-secreted LysM protein, which we refer to as RiSLM, is among the most highly expressed effector-like proteins during symbiosis. Here, we show that RiSLM expression is reduced during non-functional symbiosis with Medicago mutants, mtpt4-2 and vapyrin. We demonstrate that RiSLM can bind to both chitin and chitosan, and we model the protein-ligand interaction to identify possible binding sites. Finally, we have identified RiSLM homologs in five published R. irregularis isolate genomes and demonstrate that the gene is subject to a high rate of evolution and is experiencing positive selection, while still conserving putative function. Our results present important clues for elucidating a role for a LysM effector, RiSLM, in AM symbiosis.