Seasonality and vertical structure of light-attracted insect communities in a dipterocarp forest in Sarawak

Nocturnal flying insects were collected monthly for 13 months using ultra violet light-traps set at various vertical levels in a weakly-seasonal, tropical lowland dipterocarp forest in Sarawak, Malaysia. Abundance, faunal composition, size distribution and guild structure of these samples were analyzed with respect to temperal and vertical distributions. The nocturnal flying insect community in the canopy level was highly dominated by fig wasps (84%) in individual number, and by scarabaeid beetles (28%) in weight. A principal component analysis on monthly catches detected non-random, seasonal trends of insect abundance. The first two principal trends were an alternation of wetter (September to January) and less wet seasons (February to August) and an alternation between the least wet (January to March) and the other seasons. Many insect groups were less abundant in the least wet season than the other seasons, whilst inverse patterns were found in Scarabaeidae and Tenebrionidae. Significantly positive and negative correlations between monthly catch and rainfall were detected only in ovule-feeders and in phloem-feeders, respectively. Delayed, significant negative correlations between monthly catch and 1–3 month preceding rainfall were more frequently detected in phytophages, phloem-feeders, seed-feeders, wood-borers and scavengers. The peak in abundance along vertical levels were found at the canopy level (35 m) for phloem-, ovule-, seed-, root-, fungal-feeders and nectar collectors, at an upper subcanopy level (25 m) for scavengers and aquatic predators, and at a middle subcanopy level (17 m) for ants. Catches at the emergent level (45 m) did not exceed those at the canopy level.     

Apparent regression of the CGG repeat in FMR1 to an allele of normal size

The fragile X syndrome is the result of amplification of a CGG trinucleotide repeat in the FMR1 gene and anticipation in this disease is caused by an intergenerational expansion of this repeat. Although regression of a CGG repeat in the premutation range is not uncommon, regression from a full premutation (>200 repeats) or premutation range (50–200 repeats) to a repeat of normal size (<50 repeats) has not yet been documented. We present here a family in which the number of repeats apparently regressed from approximately 110 in the mother to 44 in her daughter. Although the CGG repeat of the daughter is in the normal range, she is a carrier of the fragile X mutation based upon the segregation pattern of Xq27 markers flanking FMR1. It is unclear, however, whether this allele of 44 repeats will be stably transmitted, as the daughter has as yet no progeny. Nevertheless, the size range between normal alleles and premutation alleles overlap, a factor that complicates genetic counseling.     

Wave-separation in complex systems. Application to brain-signals

A departure from single-system dynamics, that may arise in characterizing self-organized dynamics of complex systems, is dealt with by using the Karhunen-Loève expansion of the trajectory matrix to decompose an experimental signal in a sum of spectral features. For an electroencephalographic -signal, a separation of waves and extraction of additive sub-signals are achieved, each sub-signal covering a well-bounded and physiologically meaningful frequency range. From the subsignals, an attractor that vanishes on phase-randomizing the data is characterized, under conditions where none was found for the recorded signal.     

Free and immobilized cultures of Spirulina maxima for swine waste treatment

We have analyzed the behavior of spirulina maxima at increasing concentration of ammonium nitrogen present in swine waste when it is either growing in suspension or immobilized in polymeric supports. We compared the response of spirulina maxima growth to different concentrations of aeration stabilized swine waste (total phosphorus, ammonium nitrogen) as a way to determine the treatment efficiency of both systems. At a dilution of 50 % of swine waste, the suspended system reached the best results for biomass concentration and nutrient removal. In the immobilized system, at dilutions of 25 and 50 % of swine waste, more than 90 % ammonium nitrogen removal was obtained, and the optimal cell concentration for immobilization was 2 g/l (wet basis).     

Growth inhibition of breast cancer cells induced by exogenous ATP

Addition of ATP (>0.1 mM) to cultures of human breast cancer T47D cells resulted in an inhibition of cell proliferation. The inhibition was found to be specific for ATP, and dependent on its concentration. Growth inhibition continued for at least three days, although ATP and its hydrolysis products were metabolized within one day. Conditioned medium from ATP-treated cultures (CM+) was found to inhibit the growth of cells that were not exposed to ATP. This is an indication that extracellular factors, besides ATP, are involved in the inhibition process. The inhibition was maintained after dialysis of the CM+, using an 8 kDa cut-off membrane. Conditioned medium from untreated cultures (CM-), however, only slightly affected cell growth. The data suggest that the CM+ -induced cell growth inhibition is mediated by an ATP-activated growth inhibiting factor. Flow microfluorometry and thymidine incorporation experiments have shown that the growth arrest is mainly due to the elongation of the S-phase of the cell cycle. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Founder effect in a Belgian-Dutch fragile X population

For many years, the high prevalence of the fragile X syndrome was thought to be caused by a high mutation frequency. The recent isolation of the FMR1 gene and identification of the most prevalent mutation enable a more precise study of the fragile X mutation. As the vast majority of fragile X patients show amplification of an unstable trinucleotide repeat, DNA studies can now trace back the origin of the fragile X mutation. To date, de novo mutations leading to amplification of the CGG repeat have not yet been detected. Recently, linkage disequilibrium was found in the Australian and US populations between the fragile X mutation and adjacent polymorphic markers, suggesting a founder effect of the fragile X mutation. We present here a molecular study of Belgian and Dutch fragile X families. No de novo mutations could be found in 54 of these families. Moreover, we found significant (P < 0.0001) linkage disequilibrium in 68 unrelated fragile X patients between the fragile X mutation and an adjacent polymorphic microsatellite at DXS548. This suggests that a founder effect of the fragile X mutation also exists in the Belgian and Dutch populations. Both the absence of new mutations and the presence of linkage disequilibrium suggest that a few ancestral mutations are responsible for most of the patients with fragile X syndrome.     

Carbon uptake in Eurasian boreal forests dominates the high-latitude net ecosystem carbon budget

Arctic-boreal landscapes are experiencing profound warming, along with changes in ecosystem moisture status and disturbance from fire. This region is of global importance in terms of carbon feedbacks to climate, yet the sign (sink or source) and magnitude of the Arctic-boreal carbon budget within recent years remains highly uncertain. Here, we provide new estimates of recent (2003–2015) vegetation gross primary productivity (GPP), ecosystem respiration (R_eco), net ecosystem CO₂ exchange (NEE; R_eco − GPP), and terrestrial methane (CH₄) emissions for the Arctic-boreal zone using a satellite data-driven process-model for northern ecosystems (TCFM-Arctic), calibrated and evaluated using measurements from >60 tower eddy covariance (EC) sites. We used TCFM-Arctic to obtain daily 1-km² flux estimates and annual carbon budgets for the pan-Arctic-boreal region. Across the domain, the model indicated an overall average NEE sink of −850 Tg CO₂-C year⁻¹. Eurasian boreal zones, especially those in Siberia, contributed to a majority of the net sink. In contrast, the tundra biome was relatively carbon neutral (ranging from small sink to source). Regional CH₄ emissions from tundra and boreal wetlands (not accounting for aquatic CH₄) were estimated at 35 Tg CH₄-C year⁻¹. Accounting for additional emissions from open water aquatic bodies and from fire, using available estimates from the literature, reduced the total regional NEE sink by 21% and shifted many far northern tundra landscapes, and some boreal forests, to a net carbon source. This assessment, based on in situ observations and models, improves our understanding of the high-latitude carbon status and also indicates a continued need for integrated site-to-regional assessments to monitor the vulnerability of these ecosystems to climate change.     

Is drift ‘directional’? Unequal breeding sex ratio revisited

Unequal breeding sex ratio can significantly reduce effective population size, allowing a rare neutral allele to jump to a high frequency through genetic drift. However, this one-way alteration to allele frequency appears inconsistent with the concept that drift is non-directional. Based on binomial sampling distribution, this study developed a method to directly and exhaustively measure drift by calculating the mean deviation of change in allele frequency, then applied it to cases of unequal breeding sex ratio. The result shows that, under those cases, (1) the mean deviation can always be divided into two halves that are equal in size but opposite in direction; (2) each half consists of one or several categories represented by various allele proportions in the rare sex; (3) this proportion is another factor that determines the outcome of drift, in addition to effective population size and allele frequency; (4) drift is non-directional on a global scale, but whether an allele will drift up or down can be predicted based on the above factors. This method enables us to dissect every component of the expected change in allele frequency caused by drift and to find out the combined effect of population size, allele frequency and allele proportion in the rarer sex under neutrality but unequal breeding sex ratio.     

不同放牧强度下高寒灌丛植物的生长特点

 不同放牧强度下高寒灌丛植物在生长发育、生理生态,物质生产和群落结构等方面主要有以下变化：1．在高寒灌丛草场,禾草类、莎草类和灌丛类植物的叶面积指数和平均生长速率随着放牧强度的减轻而增大;随着放牧强度的增加而减小。植株平均高度,植被盖度水平也与放牧强度呈负相关(p<0.01)。2．各项生长分析参数中：叶面积比率(LAR)、叶面积干重比(SLA)和叶干重比(LWR)与放牧强度之间存在负相关。叶面积指数(LAI)与地上生物量呈正相关(p<0.5),地上部现存在量与放牧强度呈负相关(p<0.01)。3．不同放牧强度条件下,高寒灌丛中的禾草类、莎草类、灌丛类和杂类草植物的种类组成和数量变化明显。其中禾草类和莎草类、灌丛类植物的生物量和种类组成比例在重度放牧下减少,在轻度放牧下增大。反之,重度放牧下杂类草的组成和数量明显增加,而轻度放牧下其比例降低。     

Outer membrane protein gene expression traced by immunogold labelling in Rhizobium Leguminosarum bv. viciae strain 248 in Vicia sativa ssp. nigra.

During differentiation from bacterium into nitrogen fixing bacteroid, the outer membrane protein RopA decreases in density. Comparison between size increase of the rhizobia and density decrease of a RopA protein epitope after immuno-gold labelling, indicates that although ropA gene expression stops at the onset of nitrogen fixation, the amount of RopA protein probably remains the same.