Food-web studies in shallow eutrophic lakes by the Netherlands Institute of Ecology: Main results,knowledge gaps and new perspectives

For more than 20 years scientists of the ‘Food-chain studies’ Group of the former Limnological Institute have been studying interactions within the pelagic food web. Purpose of research was to explain the structure and dynamics of the zooplankton and fish communities in lakes and reservoirs in relation to biotic and abiotic environmental factors. A so-called multi-species approach was used, in which all common and abundant species within a specific ecosystem were studied on the individual and population level with the same degree of detail. The recent results and the scientific approach used are evaluated and the main gaps in knowledge about food-web dynamics in shallow eutrophic lakes are identified and discussed. It is concluded that instead of the purely functional approach used so far, future studies should also include evolutionary aspects which determine the success of an organism in a given environment and that more attention should be paid to central questions in ‘community ecology’. This paper is based on a lecture given by the first author for the Netherlands Society of Aquatic Ecology on May 12th, 1992, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.     

Addressing high excitation conditions in time-resolved X-ray diffraction experiments and issues of biological relevance

One of the most important fundamental questions connecting chemistry to biology is how chemistry scales in complexity up to biological systems where there are innumerable possible pathways and competing processes. With the development of ultrabright electron and x-ray sources, it has been possible to literally light up atomic motions to directly observe the reduction in dimensionality in the barrier crossing region to a few key reaction modes. How do these chemical processes further couple to the surrounding protein or macromolecular assembly to drive biological functions? Optical methods to trigger photoactive biological processes are needed to probe this issue on the relevant timescales. However, the excitation conditions have been in the highly nonlinear regime, which questions the biological relevance of the observed structural dynamics.     

INFLUENCE OF CELL SHAPE AND SIZE ON ALGAL COMPETITIVE ABILITY1

Allometric relations between physiological processes and cell volume and surface area are combined with the variable-internal-stores model of growth to predict the ability of hypothetical phytoplankton to compete for phosphorus at equilibrium. The analysis shows that for spherical cells, smaller cells are better competitors than large ones. For cells that are very elongated in shape, however, large cells are often better competitors than small ones. The cells predicted to be the best competitors compare favorably in size and shape with the species observed to dominate in phosphorus-limited chemostats at equilibrium.     

猕猴属6个种的rDNA变异及其系统进化关系

以人２８Ｓ,１８Ｓ,ｒＤＮＡ为探针,用１５种限制性内切酶构建了猕猴属６个种（Ｍ．ｍｕｌａｔｔａ,Ｍ．ｆａｃｓｉｃｕｌａｒｉｓｆＭ．ａｒｃｔｏｉｄｅｓ,Ｍ．ａｓｓａｍｅｎｓｉｓ．Ｍ．ｔｈｉｂｅｔａｎａ．Ｍ。ｎｅｍｅｓｔｒｉｎａ）和滇金丝猴Ｒｈｉｎｏｐｉｔｈｅｃｕｓｂｉｅｔｉ）,白颊长臂猿（Ｈｙｌｏｂａｔｅｓｌｅｕｃｏｇｅｎｙｓ）核糖体ＤＮＡ重复单位的限制性内切酶图谱,红面猴（Ｍ．ａｒｃｔｏｉｅｓ）与     

Homology among RAPD fragments in interspecific comparisons

The use of RAPDs for comparative purposes relies on the assumption that similarity of fragment size is a dependable indicator of homology. To test the validity of this assumption, homology among 220 pairs of comigrating fragments from three wild sunflower species was determined. Ninety-one per cent cross-hybridized and/or displayed congruent restriction fragment profiles suggestive of homology. However, comparative linkage mapping data indicated that 13% of the homologous loci mapped to genomic locations that were incongruent with the majority of loci, suggestive of paralogous rather than orthologous relationships. Thus, of the 220 pairwise comparisons, only 174 (79.1%) identified loci that are useful for comparative genetic studies. These problems, as well as several other factors discussed in the text, will introduce noise into RAPD data sets and thereby reduce the probability of generating accurate estimates of genetic relationships. Recommended methods for reducing noise in RAPD data sets include increasing gel resolution and/or testing fragment homology. However, implementation of these approaches will not eliminate all uncertainties, and it is also recommended that RAPD data sets be tested for structure and reliability.     

圈养林麝母幼关系的初步研究

本文研究圈养林麝（Ｍｏｓｃｈｕｓｍｏｓｈｉｆｅｒｕｓｂｅｒｅｚｏｖｓｋｉｉ）的母幼关系。林麝的母幼关系属于典型的隐蔽者（ｈｉｄｅｒ）类型。母幼分开躺卧,相距２０．３７±１１．０６ｍ。吮乳时间、母幼联系时间、母幼联系时间／幼麝活动总时间随周龄的增加均呈明显的下降。４周龄前,幼麝躺卧居多,母麝以叫声主动联系幼麝,５周龄开始幼麝独立程度逐渐提高。听觉和视觉通讯是母幼远距离通讯的主要方式。     

Chromosome structure of Triticum longissimum relative to wheat

Homoeologous pairing at meiotic metaphase I was analyzed in T. longissimum x T. aestivum hybrids in order to reconfirm the homoeologous relationships of T. longissimum chromosomes to wheat. Hybrids between T. longissimum and Chinese Spring carrying the Ph1 gene or theph1b mutation, which showed low and high pairing levels, respectively, were used. Chromosome arms associated at metaphase I were identified by C-banding. The homoeology of chromosomes 1S ^l , 2S ^l , 3S ^l , 5S ^l and 6S ^l to wheat group 1,2, 3, 5, and 6 chromosomes, respectively, was confirmed. Chromsome arms 4S ^l S and 7S ^l S showed normal homoeologous relationships to wheat. The 4S ^l L arm carries a translocated segment from 7S ^l L relative to wheat. The 7S ^l L arm seldom paired, likely because this arm lost a relatively long segment and received a very short segment in the interchange with 4S ^l L. Available data suggest that translocation 4S ^l L/7S ^l L arose in the evolution of T. longissimum, which implies that this species was not the donor of the B genome of wheat.     

Characterisation and serological relationships of strains of Kashmir bee virus

Isolates of novel strains of Kashmir bee virus (KBV) were obtained from field-collected dead adults of Apis mellifera from honey bee colonies in Canada and Spain. They differed from other strains of KBV in their tendency to aggregate in dilute buffer solution and in containing only three proteins when analysed by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis compared with five proteins resolved in the type strain of KBV from Apis cerana in India and six proteins in KBV strains from South Australia and New Zealand. Immunodiffusion tests and Western blotting studies indicated that the five virus isolates were serologically related and all were related to acute paralysis virus (APV). The world distribution of KBV strains and their apparent relationship with APV are discussed.