A review of recent advances in the study of early angiosperms from northeastern China

The last 10 years (1998–2007) were very productive and important in the study of early angiosperms in northeastern China. The new discoveries of the earliest well-documented records of angiosperms such as Archaefructus, as well as Hyrcantha decussata (= Sinocarpus decussatus), provided fresh knowledge for better understanding the primitive characters of the ancient angiosperms and also their aquatic (or wet) habitat and their herbaceous nature. Some new approaches such as the combination of molecular and morphological characters joined together to place Archaefructus in the angiosperm phylogenetic framework. These fossils demonstrate that we should expect more ancient angiosperms to be found in the pre-Cretaceous which will continue to add important new understanding to the nature of the origin and evolution of the angiosperms.     

Trophic functional groups and trophic levels of the macrobenthic community at the eastern tidal flat of Lingkun Island, China

A total of 33 taxa, including 21 families, 8 classes and 7 phyla, were found at the eastern tidal flat of Lingkun Island, Wenzhou Bay. Most of them were mollusks, crustaceans and polychaetes. The species numbers found at 3 tidal flats (high, middle and low) were 25, 30 and 14, respectively. It was shown that the high tidal flat had the highest value of diversity indices, followed by middle and low tidal flats. The species belonged to 5 different trophic functional groups: Phytophagous, Camivorous, Omnivorous, Planktophagous and Detritivorous in qualitative samplings. Then 3, 8, 5, 3 and 2 species belonged to Planktophagous, Phytophagous, Camivorous, Omnivorous and Detritivorous groups, respectively, in quantitative samplings. The density and species number of each functional group did not display seasonal variation by the two-way ANOVA method. Regardless of seasonal variation, density of the Phytophagous group and Camivorous group had distinct difference among different zones of tidal flats, and the species number of the Phytophagous group and Omnivorous group had obvious difference among different zones of tidal flats. Results show that there was variation of functional groups among habitats. Change in components of the macrobenthic community reflected different food sources in different zones of tidal flats.     

苏铁蕨的化学成分

从蕨类植物苏铁蕨( Brainea insignis) 中分离得到1 个新的苯乙烯基吡喃酮苷, 利用波谱技术鉴定了其结构。此外, 还得到了1 个已知的苯乙烯基吡喃酮苷和4 个其它已知化合物。同时, 还测定了分离得到的两个苯乙烯基吡喃酮苷化合物的DPPH 自由基清除活性。     

Salt bridges in the hyperthermophilic protein Ssh10b are resilient to temperature increases

A double mutant cycle (DMC) approach was employed to estimate the effect of temperature on the contribution of two highly conserved salt bridges to protein stability in the hyperthermophilic protein Ssh10b. The coupling free energy were 2.4 +/- 0.4 kJ/mol at 298 K and 2.2 +/- 0.4 kJ/mol at 353 K for Glu-54/Arg-57, and 6.0 +/- 0.2 kJ/mol at 298 K and 5.9 +/- 0.6 kJ/mol at 353 K for Glu-36/Lys-68. The stability free energy of Ssh10b decrease greatly with increasing temperature, while the direct contribution of these two salt bridges to protein stability remain almost constant, providing evidence supporting the theoretical prediction that salt bridges are extremely resilient to temperature increases and thus are specially suited to improving protein stability at high temperatures. The reason for the difference in coupling free energy between salt bridges Glu-54/Arg-57 and Glu-36/Lys-68 is discussed. Comparing our results with published DMC data for the contribution of salt bridges to stability in other proteins, we found that the energy contribution of a salt bridge formed by two charged residues far apart in the primary sequence is higher than that of those formed between two very close ones. Implications of this finding are useful for engineering proteins with enhanced thermostability.     

微囊藻毒素对尼罗罗非鱼原代肝细胞致毒机理的探讨

采用离体细胞培养诱导方法,研究微囊藻毒素-LR(microcystin-LR,MC-LR)对尼罗罗非鱼(Oreochromis niloticus)原代肝细胞的毒性效应.尼罗罗非鱼原代肝细胞经10、50、150、500 μg/L MC-LR体外诱导24h后,单细胞微量凝胶电泳(SCGE)检测显示,与对照组相比处理组出现明显的彗星拖尾现象,说明MC-LR可引起尼罗罗非鱼肝细胞DNA的损伤,并随着剂量的增加,DNA的损伤程度增大.PI/Annexin V双染色流式细胞仪(FCM)检测表明MC-LR能明显引起肝细胞凋亡,与SCGE结果一致,且DNA损伤程度越大,细胞早期凋亡率越高,呈现明显的时间、剂量依赖性.本研究为进一步从分子、细胞水平阐明MC-LR的毒性以及致毒机理提供重要的理论依据.     

一例疑似黏膜病死亡麋鹿消化及主要免疫器官病理组织学观察

应用常规石蜡切片,H.E染色,对临床初步诊断为黏膜病的一例死亡麋鹿(Elaphodus davidianus)的消化系统及脾、淋巴结进行病理组织学观察。结果表明,消化道的病变主要在黏膜层,黏膜上皮细胞脱落、坏死,固有层内毛细血管充血,炎性细胞浸润;脾主要表现为急性败血型,红髓充血、出血严重,白髓几乎完全消失;淋巴结坏死严重,组织结构被破坏,界限不明显,仅见淋巴细胞弥漫性分布于整个淋巴结内。病理组织学观察为临床诊断提供了形态学依据。     

中国红豆杉内生细菌的分离鉴定及活性研究

从中国红豆杉的茎中分离得到两株内生细菌G18、F19,通过生物学特性和16S rDNA序列分析,初步鉴定这两株菌分别为假单胞菌属(Psudomonas)和寡养单胞菌属(Stenotrophomonas)细菌.活性研究表明,G18、F19发酵液均对3种病原细菌有抑制作用,分剐对棉花黄萎病菌(Verticillium dahliae)和柑橘炭疽病菌(Colletotrichum gloeosporioides)有较强的抑制作用.G18和F19分别能降解水杨酸和敌敌畏.