Review of the Southeast Asian species of the Aenictus javanus and Aenictus philippinensis species groups (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Aenictinae)

The Southeast Asian species of the Aenictus javanus and Aenictus philippinensis groups are revised. Six species (four named and two new species) of the Aenictus javanus group occurring in this area are: Aenictus doydeei Jaitrong & Yamane, 2011, Aenictus duengkaei Jaitrong & Yamane, sp. n., Aenictus javanus Emery, 1896, Aenictus longinodus Jaitrong & Yamane, sp. n., Aenictus nishimurai Terayama & Kubota, 1993, and Aenictus piercei Wheeler & Chapman, 1930. Four species (three named and one new species) are recognized in the Aenictus philippinensis group: Aenictus pangantihoni Zettel & Sorger, 2010, Aenictus philippinensis Chapman, 1963, Aenictus punctatus Jaitrong & Yamane, sp. n., and Aenictus rabori Chapman, 1963. Aenictus piercei is removed from the members of the Aenictus piercei group sensu Jaitrong and Yamane (2011) and transferred to the Aenictus javanus group. Lectotypes and paralectotypes are designated for Aenictus piercei and Aenictus rabori. Size variation occurs among individuals from single colonies of the Aenictus javanus group, while the workers in the Aenictus philippinensis group are clearly monomorphic.     

Exclusive conservation of mitochondrial group II intron nad4i548 among liverworts and its use for phylogenetic studies in this ancient plant clade

Liverworts occupy a pivotal position in land plant (embryophyte) phylogeny as the presumed earliest-branching major clade, sister to all other land plants, including the mosses, hornworts, lycophytes, monilophytes and seed plants. Molecular support for this earliest dichotomy in land plant phylogeny comes from strikingly different occurrences of introns in mitochondrial genes distinguishing liverworts from all other embryophytes. Exceptionally, however, the nad5 gene--the mitochondrial locus hitherto used most widely to elucidate early land plant phylogeny--carries a group I type intron that is shared between liverworts and mosses. We here explored whether a group II intron, the other major type of organellar intron, would similarly be conserved in position across the entire diversity of extant liverworts and could be of use for phylogenetic analyses in this supposedly most ancient embryophyte clade. To this end, we investigated the nad4 gene as a candidate locus possibly featuring different introns in liverworts as opposed to the non-liverwort embryophyte (NLE) lineage. We indeed found group II intron nad4i548 universally conserved in a wide phylogenetic sampling of 55 liverwort taxa, confirming clade specificity and surprising evolutionary stability of plant mitochondrial introns. As expected, intron nad4i548g2 carries phylogenetic information in its variable sequences, which confirms and extends previous cladistic insights on liverwort evolution. We integrate the new nad4 data with those of the previously established mitochondrial nad5 and the chloroplast rbcL and rps4 genes and present a phylogeny based on the fused datasets. Notably, the phylogenetic analyses suggest a reconsideration of previous phylogenetic and taxonomic assignments for the genera Calycularia and Mylia and resolve a sister group relationship of Ptilidiales and Porellales.     

太湖湖滨生态修复区大型底栖动物群落结构及梯度分布

2010—2011年对太湖贡湖湾湖滨带生态修复区滨岸挺水植物带(Ⅰ)、湾相沉水植物带(Ⅱ)和堰外开敞水体(Ⅲ)3个滨岸生境梯度带的水质状况和底栖动物群落特征进行了研究。结果表明:调查共发现底栖动物13科18种,其中仅出现于1个生境梯度带的物种7个;在其余的11个物种中,有5个种群的密度在生境梯度带间存在显著差异;比较发现,按底栖动物摄食功能类群的相对比例,刮食者相对丰度在带Ⅰ最高,收集者在带Ⅱ最高,滤食者在带Ⅲ最高,不同生境梯度带间底栖动物的摄食功能类群构成存在显著差异。对底栖动物相对丰度和水环境参数的冗余分析显示,环节动物和昆虫与DO、NO3--N和PO43--P浓度正相关,软体动物则与NO3--N和PO43--P负相关,一些腹足类对低DO耐受能力较强,与NH4+-N和COD正相关。修复区3个梯度带水动力条件、水质状况和底质类型的差异性对底栖动物的分布有重要影响,形成了生活习性、摄食特征等显著不同的3个底栖动物群落。     

秦岭西部山地次生林和人工林大型土壤动物群落结构特征

人类对次生林生态系统的长期扰动必然会对地下生态过程产生深刻影响,而土壤动物群落结构和功能多样性对地下生态过程的演变有重要的指示意义.本文以小陇山林区恢复近30年的次生林和栽植近30年的油松、日本落叶松、欧洲云杉和粗枝云杉林为对象,通过对5种林型土壤动物群落密度调查,采用PCA排序和方差分析等方法,探讨了不同林型土壤动物群落结构特征和营养结构.结果表明:油松林和日本落叶松林土壤动物群落密度是次生林的3.0和2.1倍;油松和日本落叶松人工林土壤动物群落中消费者/分解者比值明显高于次生林,油松林和日本落叶松林消费者/分解者的比值显著高于欧洲云杉林和粗枝云杉林;不同人工林土壤动物群落结构存在明显差异,油松林和日本落叶松林土壤动物群落密度是粗枝云杉林的4.5和3.1倍,而油松林土壤动物群落类群丰富度是欧洲云杉林和粗枝云杉林的1.5倍.     

Advanced photobioreactor LED illumination system: Scale‐down approach to study microalgal growth kinetics

A newly designed and constructed LED illumination device for commercial cylindrical bioreactors is presented for application in microalgal cultivations and investigation of growth kinetics. An ideally illuminated volume is achieved by focusing the light toward the center of the reactor and thereby compensating the mutual shading of the cells. The relevant biomass concentration for homogeneous illumination depending on reactor radius was determined by light distribution measurements for Chlamydomonas to 0.2 g/L (equal 0.435 optical density at 750 nm). It is shown that cultivation experiments with the newly designed illumination device operated in batch mode can be successfully applied for determination of growth rates and photo conversion efficiencies. The exact knowledge of physiological reactions of specific strain(s) and the estimation of relevant parameters for scale‐up can be used for construction of economic pilot plant photobioreactors. The determination of light‐dependent kinetics of growth and product formation is the first necessary step to achieve this. A wide variety of different parameters can be examined like the effect of different illumination conditions (light intensity, frequency of day/night cycles, flashing light, light color…) and thereby for each single application specific, relevant, and interesting parameters will be examined.     

转Bt水稻土壤跳虫群落组成及其数量变化

以转Bt水稻恢复系"克螟稻"(Cry1Ab纯合基因型)和"华恢1号"(Cry1Ab+Cry1Ac融合基因型)以及融合基因型转Bt水稻杂交系"Bt汕忧63",及其对照亲本水稻"秀水11"、"明恢63"和"汕优63"稻田土壤跳虫类群为对象,系统研究转Bt水稻种植下土壤跳虫群落组成及其数量动态变化,以评价不同基因型和不同育种品系转Bt水稻种植下稻田土壤生态安全性。结果表明,转Bt水稻种植导致土壤跳虫个别稀有类群的消失,并显著影响半土生和真土生类群以及土壤跳虫总量,但对群落多样性、均匀度和种类丰富度等影响不显著。与对照亲本相比,Cry1Ab转Bt稻田半土生类群和土壤跳虫总量及其种类丰富度指标显著增加了54.7%、44.4%和26.7%;Cry1Ab+Cry1Ac转Bt杂交稻田球角跳属百分比和真土生跳虫数量显著增加了212.3%和180.4%。就恢复系处理而言,与Cry1Ab转Bt水稻相比,Cry1Ab+Cry1Ac转Bt水稻种植导致棘跳属、球角跳属和原等跳属百分比以及半土生跳虫数量分别显著降低了62.1%、56.7%、61.8%和43.4%,同时,显著提高了裔符跳属百分比达88.2%。就Cry1Ab+Cry1Ac融合基因型转Bt水稻而言,与恢复系相比,转Bt杂交稻种植导致球角跳属和原等跳属百分比,半土生类群和土壤跳虫总量及其种类丰富度和群落多样性显著增加了312.9%和171.6%,302.4%和233.2%,以及54.0%和26.7%,同时,显著降低了裔符跳属百分比达65.5%。     

浙江分水江水库大型底栖动物群落结构及水质评价

2008年11月-2009年10月,在浙江桐庐分水江水库设置7个站点对大型底栖动物进行逐月调查.结果表明:调查共采集到37种底栖动物,主要由寡毛纲和摇蚊科物种组成.春、夏、秋季优势种均为霍甫水丝蚓,冬季优势种为羽摇蚊.直接收集者在物种数量、密度和生物量上均占绝对优势.群落年均密度和年均生物量分别为(488.0±48.8) ind·m-2和(1.86±0.49) g·m-2.底栖动物密度在站点间无明显差异但存在显著的季节变化,呈现春季＞夏季＞冬季＞秋季的趋势,生物量在站点、季节间均无显著差异.水温和水深是影响底栖动物时空分布的主要因子.Shannon多样性指数和Goodnight-Whitley指数不适合用于该水库的水质评价,其他指数综合显示分水江水库属于轻度污染.     

A structural analysis of the catalytic mechanism of methionine sulfoxide reductase A from Neisseria meningitidis

The methionine sulfoxide reductases (Msrs) are thioredoxin-dependent oxidoreductases that catalyse the reduction of the sulfoxide function of the oxidized methionine residues. These enzymes have been shown to regulate the life span of a wide range of microbial and animal species and to play the role of physiological virulence determinant of some bacterial pathogens. Two structurally unrelated classes of Msrs exist, MsrA and MsrB, with opposite stereoselectivity towards the R and S isomers of the sulfoxide function, respectively. Both Msrs share a similar three-step chemical mechanism including (1) the formation of a sulfenic acid intermediate on the catalytic Cys with the concomitant release of the product—methionine, (2) the formation of an intramonomeric disulfide bridge between the catalytic and the regenerating Cys and (3) the reduction of the disulfide bridge by thioredoxin or its homologues. In this study, four structures of the MsrA domain of the PilB protein from Neisseria meningitidis, representative of four catalytic intermediates of the MsrA catalytic cycle, were determined by X-ray crystallography: the free reduced form, the Michaelis-like complex, the sulfenic acid intermediate and the disulfide oxidized forms. They reveal a conserved overall structure up to the formation of the sulfenic acid intermediate, while a large conformational switch is observed in the oxidized form. The results are discussed in relation to those proposed from enzymatic, NMR and theoretical chemistry studies. In particular, the substrate specificity and binding, the catalytic scenario of the reductase step and the relevance and role of the large conformational change observed in the oxidized form are discussed.     

Gephyrin expression and clustering affects the size of glutamatergic synaptic contacts

We have recently shown that disrupting the expression and post-synaptic clustering of gephyrin in cultured hippocampal pyramidal cells, by either gephyrin RNAi (RNA interference) or over-expression of a dominant negative gephyrin-enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) fusion protein, leads to decreased number of post-synaptic gephyrin and GABA_A receptor clusters and to reduced GABAergic innervation of these cells. On the other hand, increasing gephyrin expression led to a small increase in the number of gephyrin and GABA_A receptor clusters and to little or no effect on GABAergic innervation. We are now reporting that altering gephyrin expression and clustering affects the size but not the density of glutamatergic synaptic contacts. Knocking down gephyrin with gephyrin RNAi, or preventing gephyrin clustering by over-expression of the dominant negative gephyrin-enhanced green fluorescent protein fusion protein, leads to larger post-synaptic PSD-95 clusters and larger pre-synaptic glutamatergic terminals. On the other hand, over-expression of gephyrin leads to slightly smaller PSD-95 clusters and pre-synaptic glutamatergic terminals. The change in size of PSD-95 clusters were accompanied by a parallel change in the size of NR2-NMDA receptor clusters. It is concluded that the levels of expression and clustering of gephyrin, a protein that concentrates at the post-synaptic complex of the inhibitory synapses, not only has homotypic effects on GABAergic synaptic contacts, but also has heterotypic effects on glutamatergic synaptic contacts. We are proposing that gephyrin is a counterpart of the post-synaptic glutamatergic scaffold protein PSD-95 in regulating the number and/or size of the excitatory and inhibitory synaptic contacts.