长江源区同域分布兔狲、藏狐和赤狐的时空重叠度

兔狲(Otocolobus manul)、藏狐(Vulpes ferrilata)和赤狐(V. vulpes)是青藏高原三江源区域分布的重要小型食肉兽。本研究于2014年6月至2019年9月在青海省长江源区沱沱河和通天河沿岸选取208个位点布设红外相机, 通过所获取的时空分布数据比较了上述3种同域分布小型食肉兽的时空利用情况。通过空间重叠度系数的比较分析, 兔狲和藏狐、兔狲和赤狐以及藏狐和赤狐之间的空间重叠度系数分别为0.25、0.48和0.17, 这表明兔狲、藏狐和赤狐三者在空间利用上存在一定的差异。通过核密度估计方法分析, 兔狲和藏狐属典型的昼行性动物, 而赤狐以夜行性活动为主。兔狲、藏狐和赤狐每个物种在冷暖两季的日活动节律重叠指数分别为0.83、0.78和0.88。两两比较分析表明, 兔狲和藏狐二者的日活动节律重叠指数最高(0.84), 兔狲和赤狐在夜间活动时段存在一定重叠(0.63), 而藏狐和赤狐的时间生态位分化最明显, 重叠指数最低(0.48)。此外, 在暖季, 两两物种之间的日活动节律重叠指数均小于其冷季的重叠指数。综上所述, 长江源区兔狲、藏狐和赤狐3种小型食肉兽可通过空间和时间资源的利用差异来降低物种间的干扰和竞争, 从而达到同域物种共存的目的。     

Thylakoid membrane dynamics and state transitions in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii under elevated temperature

Photosynthesis Research - Moderately elevated temperatures can induce state transitions in higher plants by phosphorylation of light-harvesting complex II (LHCII). In this study, we exposed...     

Genetic engineering of indica rice with AtDREB1A gene for enhanced abiotic stress tolerance

Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC) - Adventitious root (AR) culturing is an effective approach for obtaining bioactive compounds from the endangered plant species of Oplopanax elatus...     

Theoretical insights into the metal chelating and antimicrobial properties of the chalcone based Schiff bases

The emergence of multi-drug resistant pathogens in infectious disease conditions accentuates the need for the design of new classes of antimicrobial agents that could defeat the multidrug resistance problems. As a new class of molecules, the Heterocyclic Schiff base is of considerable interest, owing to their preparative accessibility, structural flexibilities, versatile metal chelating properties, and inherent biological activities. In the present study, CAM-B3LYP/LANL2DZ and M062X/DEF2-TZVP level of density functional method is used to explore the complexation of chalcone based Schiff base derivatives by Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, and Zn²⁺ metal ions. The HL(1-3)-Co²⁺, HL(1-3)-Ni²⁺ and HL(1-3)-Zn²⁺ complexes formed the distorted tetrahedral geometry. Whereas, the HL(1-3)-Cu²⁺ complexes prefers distorted square-planar geometry. The BSSE corrected interaction energies of the studied complexes reveals that Cu²⁺ ion forms the most stable complexes with all three chalcone based Schiff bases. Of the three Schiff bases studied, the HL2 Schiff base acts as a potent chelating agent and forms the active metal complexes than the HL1 and HL3 Schiff bases. Further, the strength of the interaction follows the order as Cu^2+?>?Ni^2+?>?Co^2+?>?Zn²⁺. The QTAIM analysis reveals that the interaction between the metal ions and coordinating ligand atoms are electrostatic dominant. The metal interaction increases the π-delocalisation of electrons over the entire chelate. Hence, the antimicrobial activity of the metal complexes is more effective than the free Schiff bases. Moreover, the HL(1-3)-Cu²⁺ complexes shows higher antimicrobial activities than the other complexes studied.     

Apoptosis in HepaRG and HL-7702 cells inducted by polyphyllin II through caspases activation and cell-cycle arrest

Rhizoma Paridis, a traditional Chinese medicine, has shown promise in cancer prevention and therapy. Polyphyllin II is one of the most significant saponins in Rhizoma Paridis and it has toxic effects on kinds of cancer cells. However, our results in this study proved that the polyphyllin II has hepatotoxicity in vitro through caspases activation and cell-cycle arrest. 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide results indicated polyphyllin II inhibited proliferation, induced apoptosis in HepaRG cells and HL-7702 cells and showed a concentration and time-dependent. Then, we selected the innovative cell model-HepaRG cells to explore the mechanism of hepatotoxicity. Our data showed the reactive oxygen species (ROS) increased and the mitochondrial membrane potential decreased in HepaRG cells after administration of polyphyllin II. Besides, with the increase of concentration, the release of lactate dehydrogenase increased and the S phase of the cell cycle was arrested. Nevertheless, when pretreatment with antioxidant N-acetylcysteine, apoptotic cells decreased significantly, inhibited the production of ROS and improved the decrease of membrane potential in HepaRG cells. Moreover, polyphyllin II treatment increased levels of Fas, Bax, cytochrome c, activated caspase-3, -8, -9, cleaved poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase and decreased Bcl-2 expression levels. Finally, we identified two signal pathways of apoptosis induced by polyphyllin II including the death receptor pathway and the mitochondria pathway. This study confirmed the hepatotoxicity of the polyphyllin II in vitro, which has never been discovered and gave a wake-up call for the clinical application of Rhizoma Paridis.     

Humpback whale singing activity off the Goan coast in the Eastern Arabian Sea

For over two decades, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) methods have been successfully employed around the world for studying aquatic megafauna. PAM-driven studies in Indian waters have so far been relatively very scarce. Furthermore, cetacean populations inhabiting the north western Indian Ocean are far less studied than those in many other regions around the world. This work likely constitutes the first systematic study of the vocal repertoire of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) at a near-shore site along the western coast of India. Analysis of the observed vocalizations provides an insight into the behaviour of the species. This is significant as it assists in developing a better understanding of the habitat use of the non-migratory Arabian Sea humpback whale population. In contrast, other breeding populations such as those around the North Atlantic, South Pacific and Australia have been relatively well studied. Underwater passive acoustic data were collected during March 2017 using an autonomous logger at a shallow-water site off the eastern edge of Grande Island off the coast of Goa. Humpback whale vocalizations were found to occur over multiple days in the recordings. Time–frequency contours of individual units of vocalization were extracted with the aid of an automatic detection technique and the characteristics of the units were measured. Further, successive units were analysed for formation of phrases and themes. Reconstruction of putative songs from the identified units and themes was not possible due to the limitations imposed by the nature of data collection. Detailed analyses of units, phrases and themes are presented.     

Planning Transboundary Ecological Risk Assessments at Military Installations

Ecological risk assessments at military installations that are performed to support natural resources management objectives rely on information from the surrounding region. Stressors such as noise, ozone, and ozone precursors cross installation boundaries, and effects of urbanization and highway development are regional in scale. Ecological populations are not limited to one side of the installation boundary. Therefore, a framework for transboundary ecological risk assessment at military installations is under development. This article summarizes the problem formulation stage. Components include: (1) regional management goals such as installation Integrated Natural Resources Management Plans and land acquisition, (2) involvement of multiple stressors, and (3) large-scale assessment endpoint entities. Challenges of selecting measures of exposure include: quantifying exposure to aggregate stressors, describing land cover consistently in the region, describing rates of land-cover transition, scaling local measurements to a region, and aggregating or isolating exposures from within and outside of the installation. Measures of effect that are important to transboundary or regional ecological risk assessments at military installations are those that represent: effects at a distance from the stressor, large-scale effects, effects of habitat change or fragmentation, spatial extrapolations of localized effects, and integrated effects of multiple stressors. These factors are reflected in conceptual models.