滨豇豆的生态生物学特征

为探究滨豇豆(Vignamarina)的生态生物学特性及其对热带珊瑚岛的适应性,对西沙群岛野生滨豇豆的叶片形态解剖结构、生理特征和营养成分进行了分析。结果表明,滨豇豆具有叶片厚、比叶面积小、栅栏组织发达、气孔密度大、气孔面积指数大等形态特征,对减少蒸腾、保持水分起到重要作用。滨豇豆叶片的SOD活性和脯氨酸(Pro)含量高,丙二醛(MDA)含量低,表明抗氧化能力较强;滨豇豆叶片养分含量适中但其生境土壤养分含量很低,说明其对养分有着良好的吸收利用能力,利于适应贫瘠的环境。因此,滨豇豆具有能够较好地适应珊瑚岛礁高温、干旱、贫瘠生境的形态解剖结构和生理特征,加之其具有良好的固氮和养分利用能力,可作为热带珊瑚岛植被恢复的工具种。     

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and biochar improves drought tolerance in chickpea

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation and biochar amendment has been reported to improve growth of several crop plants however their role in stress amelioration individually as well as in combination has not been worked out. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the application of AMF and biochar on the performance of chickpea under drought stress. The treatments included the individual as well as combined treatment of AMF and biochar to drought stressed and normal chickpea plants. Plants inoculation improved growth in terms of shoot and root length, leaf area and number of branches which was observed to show a steep decline due to drought stress. Drought declined the AMF colonization potential though biochar amendment ameliorated the negative effects of drought significantly by improving the spore population, number of mycelium, vesicle and arbuscules and the percentage of colonization as well. Increased chlorophyll synthesis in biochar and AMF treated plants was obvious, which lead to significant enhancement in the net photosynthetic efficiency. Drought stress also declined the relative water content (RWC) and membrane stability index (MSI), while treatment of biochar and AMF either individually or in combination mitigated the deleterious effects to considerable extent and caused a significant enhancement in RWC and MSI under normal conditions. Amendments with biochar and AMF inoculation increased the nitrogen fixation attributes including the number and weight of nodules, leghemoglobin content and activity of nitrate reductase enzyme leading to greater uptake and assimilation of nitrogen in them when compared to drought stressed plants. Drought stressed chickpea plants exhibited considerable reduction in uptake of nitrogen and phosphorous which was ameliorated by biochar and AMF treatments. It could be suggested that increase in growth and physiological attributes in chickpea due to biochar amendments and AMF inoculation under drought stress were plausibly due to their involvement in nitrogen and phosphorous uptake, chlorophyll synthesis and photosynthesis.     

Evolutionary history and climate conditions constrain the flower colours of woody plants in China

进化历史和气候条件共同影响中国木本植物花色的分布 本研究以中国木本植物为研究对象,主要探讨两个问题：(1)不同生活型物种花色组成的差异;(2)生物地理区、进化年龄和气候条件对不同花色地理分布格局的影响。研究使用7673种木本植物的物种分布数据和花色信息(分为白色、红色、黄色、黄绿色、绿色和蓝紫色),并结合属级系统进化树来比较不同生活型(包括灌木、乔木和藤本)物种花色组成的差异,分析不同生物地理区、进化年龄和现代气候对花色地理格局的影响。研究结果表明,与乔木和藤本植物相比,灌木具有更高比例 的由花青素着色的红色花和蓝紫色花物种。中国木本植物的花色地理格局受到区域效应和现代气候(尤其是降水和UVB辐射)的共同影响。倾向于蜂媒传粉的黄色花和蓝紫色花物种和由花青素着色、耐环境胁迫的红色花和蓝紫色花物种比例在中国西北部地区更高。绿色花物种的进化起源更早,但进化时间对花色地理格局的解释力很弱。这些结果说明中国木本植物花色的地理格局受到进化历史和现代环境的共同影响。     

浮游细菌群落变化对锥状斯氏藻藻华的影响

目的:本实验以大亚湾原发性锥状斯氏藻为例,采集野外样品,分析藻华不同时期主要菌群的结构和环境样品的硫化物与赋存形态。方法:应用末端限制性片段长度多态性技术和主成分分析方法,分析藻华发生过程中浮游细菌群落相似程度的情况,得到差异显著的浮游细菌类群。选出代表类群的样品进行16S r DNA高变区测序,获取浮游细菌的分类结果及相对丰度。采用Pearson相关性分析浮游细菌、藻、硫化物两两间的相互关系。结果:早期藻华以Enterobacteriaceae为主导,各优势菌群(Enterobacteriaceae:Alteromonadaceae:Rhodobacteraceae)的比例约为8:1:21,硫元素主要以DMS形式存在;而后期Alteromonadaceae成为优势物种,各优势菌群的比例转变为3:5:25,硫的赋存形态由DMS转变为DMSO;Rhodobacteraceae在藻华的前期与后期均以优势种存在。本实验还发现藻华不同时期4种与藻呈正向相关的细菌,以及8种对藻起负向调节作用的细菌,它们在藻华生消的过程中扮演着不同的角色。结论:菌群的组成性改变与藻华生消具有一定的相关性,并对藻类的硫代谢产生影响。结果的获得有助于认识藻华微生物学过程中硫代谢的生态学功能,拓展锥状斯氏藻藻华的理论认识。     

Local hopping mobile DNA implicated in pseudogene formation and reductive evolution in an obligate cyanobacteria-plant symbiosis

Background

Insertion sequences (ISs) are approximately 1 kbp long “jumping” genes found in prokaryotes. ISs encode the protein Transposase, which facilitates the excision and reinsertion of ISs in genomes, making these sequences a type of class I (“cut-and-paste”) Mobile Genetic Elements. ISs are proposed to be involved in the reductive evolution of symbiotic prokaryotes. Our previous sequencing of the genome of the cyanobacterium ‘Nostoc azollae’ 0708, living in a tight perpetual symbiotic association with a plant (the water fern Azolla), revealed the presence of an eroding genome, with a high number of insertion sequences (ISs) together with an unprecedented large proportion of pseudogenes. To investigate the role of ISs in the reductive evolution of ‘Nostoc azollae’ 0708, and potentially in the formation of pseudogenes, a bioinformatic investigation of the IS identities and positions in 47 cyanobacterial genomes was conducted. To widen the scope, the IS contents were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively in 20 other genomes representing both free-living and symbiotic bacteria.

Results

Insertion Sequences were not randomly distributed in the bacterial genomes and were found to transpose short distances from their original location (“local hopping”) and pseudogenes were enriched in the vicinity of IS elements. In general, symbiotic organisms showed higher densities of IS elements and pseudogenes than non-symbiotic bacteria. A total of 1108 distinct repeated sequences over 500 bp were identified in the 67 genomes investigated. In the genome of ‘Nostoc azollae’ 0708, IS elements were apparent at 970 locations (14.3%), with 428 being full-length. Morphologically complex cyanobacteria with large genomes showed higher frequencies of IS elements, irrespective of life style.

Conclusions

The apparent co-location of IS elements and pseudogenes found in prokaryotic genomes implies earlier IS transpositions into genes. As transpositions tend to be local rather than genome wide this likely explains the proximity between IS elements and pseudogenes. These findings suggest that ISs facilitate the reductive evolution in for instance in the symbiotic cyanobacterium ‘Nostoc azollae’ 0708 and in other obligate prokaryotic symbionts.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1386-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.