青藏高原东北部不同降水梯度下高山林线祁连圆柏径向生长与气候关系的比较

为了了解青藏高原东北部不同降水梯度下, 高山林线处的树木径向生长与气候关系是否存在差异, 在青海东北部从西北到东南沿降水梯度设置3个高山林线采样点: 乌兰县哈里哈图国家森林公园(HL, 年降水量217 mm)、都兰县曲什岗(QS, 281 mm)和同德县河北林场(HB, 470 mm), 运用树轮年轮学方法分析林线优势种祁连圆柏(Sabina przewalskii)的径向生长-气候关系随降水梯度的变化规律。结果表明: 不同降水梯度下, 降水对祁连圆柏径向生长的限制作用差异不明显, 但温度对祁连圆柏径向生长的影响存在显著差异。在低降水区域(HL), 冬、夏季最低气温主要限制祁连圆柏径向生长, 并且在不同气候特征年中无明显变化; 在中降水区域(QS), 祁连圆柏的径向生长明显受冬季最低气温影响, 与低降水区域相比, 春、夏季最低气温对祁连圆柏径向生长的限制作用减弱, 并且主要限制因子在不同气候特征年存在显著变化; 在高降水区域(HB), 冬、夏季最低气温对祁连圆柏径向生长的限制作用不显著, 而春、秋季最低气温对祁连圆柏径向生长的抑制作用显著增加, 并且主要集中在高温年和干旱年。该研究结果并未支持干旱(湿润)区高山林线树木径向生长主要由水分(温度)限制的假说, 但是林线处降水量会影响树木生长与温度的关系。随着青藏高原东北部暖湿化加剧, 不同地区林线处树木生长的气候限制因子可能存在复杂化趋势。     

Influence of leaf trichomes on boundary layer conductance and gas‐exchange characteristics in Metrosideros polymorpha (Myrtaceae)

The amount of trichomes on the leaves of Metrosideros polymorpha varies enormously, ranging from 0 to ca 150 g/m² across environmental gradients on the island of Hawaii. Pubescent individuals are abundant in dry areas or on young lava flows, whereas glabrous individuals are abundant in wet areas or on developed soils. To understand the adaptive advantages of pubescent individuals in arid environments, we addressed the following questions: (1) whether leaf trichomes increase the boundary layer resistance to gas diffusion, which in turn reduces the transpiration rate and increases water‐use efficiency (WUE); and (2) whether pubescent individuals have other associated leaf and shoot traits that have adaptive significance in arid environments. We made detailed ecophysiological measurements on M. polymorpha in three populations in habitats that varied in aridity. We found a large allocation of leaf mass to trichomes, up to 33 percent at the arid site, but our analyses showed that trichomes had small effects (1–9%) on gas exchange and negligible effects on WUE, suggesting the trichomes may have roles beyond increasing WUE. However, pubescent individuals did have higher Rubisco amount and a lower leaf‐to‐ sapwood area ratio, which are considered adaptive in arid environments. These results suggest that pubescent individuals of M. polymorpha are indeed adapted to arid environments with changes in a suite of traits. The adaptive significance of the enormous variation in amounts of trichomes remains unclear and may be related to functions other than increasing boundary layer resistance.     

Does daily climate variation have an effect on species’ elevational range size?

In their recent paper published in Science (2016, 351 , 1437–1439), Chan et al. analysed 137 montane gradients, concluding that they found a novel pattern—a negative relationship between mean elevational range size of species and daily temperature variation, which was claimed as empirical evidence for a novel macrophysiological principle (Gilchrist's hypothesis). This intriguing possibility was their key conceptual contribution. Unfortunately, as we show, the empirical evidence was flawed because of errors in the analyses and substantial sampling bias in the data. First, we re‐ran their analyses using their data, finding that their model should have been rejected. Second, we performed two additional re‐analyses of their data, addressing biases and pseudoreplication in different ways, both times again rejecting the evidence claimed to support Gilchrist's hypothesis. These results overturn the key empirical findings of Chan et al.'s study. Therefore, the “macrophysiological principle” should be regarded as currently remaining unsupported by empirical evidence.     

Salient features in the locomotion of proboscideans revealed via the differential scaling of limb long bones

The standard differential scaling of proportions in limb long bones (length against circumference) was applied to a phylogenetically wide sample of the Proboscidea, Elephantidae and the Asian (Elephas maximus) and African (Loxodonta africana) elephants. In order to investigate allometric patterns in proboscideans and terrestrial mammals with parasagittal limb kinematics, the computed slopes between long bone lengths and circumferences (slenderness exponents) were compared with published values for mammals, and studied within a framework of the theoretical models of long bone scaling under gravity and muscle forces. Limb bone allometry in E. maximus and the Elephantidae is congruent with adaptation to bending and/or torsion induced by muscular forces during fast locomotion, as in other mammals, whereas the limb bones in L. africana appear to be adapted for coping with the compressive forces of gravity. Hindlimb bones are therefore more compliant than forelimb bones, and the resultant limb compliance gradient in extinct and extant elephants, contrasting in sign to that of other mammals, is shown to be a new important locomotory constraint preventing elephants from achieving a full‐body aerial phase during fast locomotion. Moreover, the limb bone pattern of African elephants, indicating a noncritical bone stress not increasing with increments in body weight, explains why their mean and maximal body masses are usually above those for Asian elephants. Differences in ecology may be responsible for the subtle differences observed in vivo between African and Asian elephants, but they appear to be more pronounced when revealed via mechanical patterns dictated by limb bone allometry. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 100 , 16–29.     

Kinetic Instability of the Serpin Z α1-Antitrypsin Promotes Aggregation

The serpinopathies encompass a large number of diseases caused by inappropriate conformational change and self-association (polymerization) of a serpin (serine proteinase inhibitor) molecule. The most common serpinopathy is α₁-antitrypsin (α₁AT) deficiency, which is associated with an increased risk for liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and early-onset emphysema. The Z variant of α₁AT, which accounts for 95% of all cases of α₁AT deficiency, polymerizes during synthesis and after secretion. Here, we show using intrinsic and extrinsic fluorescence probes that Z α₁AT exists in a non-native conformation. We examined the thermodynamic stability by transverse urea gradient gel electrophoresis, thermal denaturation and equilibrium guanidine hydrochloride unfolding and found that, despite structural differences between the two proteins, wild-type α₁AT and Z α₁AT display similar unfolding pathways and thermodynamic stabilities. Far-UV circular dichroism and bis-ANS (4,4′-dianilino-1,1′-binaphthyl-5,5′-disulfonic acid, dipotassium salt) fluorescence suggest that the intermediate ensembles formed during unfolding of wild-type α₁AT and Z α₁AT are characterized by similar structural features. Kinetic analysis of the unfolding transition showed that Z α₁AT unfolds at least 1.5-fold faster than the wild type. The biological implications of these data are discussed.     

Decomposing Spatial β‐Diversity in the temperate forests of Northeastern China

β‐Diversity, which describes the extent of change in species composition in a given region, has become a core issue in ecology in recent years. However, it is hard to understand the underlying mechanisms of β‐diversity by using indices that yield identical values under species replacement and nestedness pattern. Partitioning β‐diversity into turnover (caused by species replacement among plots) and nestedness components (caused by species loss or gain among plots) may provide improved understanding of the variation in species composition. Here, we collected presence–absence data of 456 one‐tenth ha circular plots in the temperate forests of Northeastern China spanning a latitudinal range of 12° (41–53°N). We decomposed β‐diversity to assess the relative contribution of the turnover and nestedness components across latitudinal gradients. We used regression analysis to assess the relationship between spatial distance and β‐diversity. We applied variation partitioning to evaluate the importance of the measured environmental and spatial variables in explaining β‐diversity. We used the Tukey honest significant difference test to test the differences of β‐diversity along latitudinal gradients. Pearson correlations (r) and significance (p‐value) were computed using the Mantel tests to verify the relationship between distance and β‐diversity. The ANOVA test was used to verify whether the variation of β‐diversity explained by the environment and distance was significant. Our results showed that (1) β‐diversity and the turnover component were higher at low latitudes (zones A and B) than at high latitudes (zones C and D), while there was no relationship between the nestedness component and latitude. (2) The turnover component was dominant. (3) The spatial distance explained more variation of β‐diversity than the measured environmental factors. Therefore, we conclude that β‐diversity is mainly a product of species turnover in our temperate forests, suggesting that different localities harbor different species. We find that decomposing β‐diversity into the turnover and nestedness components is a useful approach to explore the variation of community composition and their causes.     

基于PCR-DGGE技术的红树林区微生物群落结构

【目的】为了解红树林沉积物中细菌的群落结构特征。【方法】应用PCR-DGGE技术对福建浮宫红树林的16个采样站位样品细菌的群落结构进行了研究。根据DGGE指纹图谱,对它们的遗传多样性进行了分析。【结果】各站位样品细菌多样性指数(H)、丰度(S)和均匀度(EH)均有所不同,这些差异与它们所处站位的不同有关,红树林区细菌多样性高于非红树林区细菌多样性。对不同站位细菌群落相似性分析,它们的相似性系数也存在一定的规律,同一断面的细菌群落结构相近性较高。对DGGE的优势条带序列分析,同源性最高的微生物分别属于变形菌门(Proteobacteria)、酸菌门(Acidobacteria)和绿菌门(Chlorobi),它们均为未培养微生物,分别来自于河口海岸沉积物。【结论】应用PCR-DGGE技术更能客观地反映红树林沉积物中真实的细菌群落结构信息。另外,研究也表明红树林区微生物多样性丰富,在红树林区研究开发未知微生物资源具有巨大的潜力。     

镇江香醋固态发酵醋醅中微生物总DNA提取方法比较

【目的】为了更加全面地分析我国传统固态发酵过程中微生物群落的多样性和演替情况,本文以镇江香醋固态发酵为例,对比研究了11种不同的总DNA提取法对醋醅中总DNA提取的影响。【方法】使用紫外分光光度计法和荧光定量PCR(Realtime Quantitative PCR)测定了不同提取方法得到的醋醅样品总DNA的产量与纯度,采用变性梯度凝胶电泳(DGGE)法对固态发酵中细菌和真菌的多样性进行了分析。【结果】醋醅总DNA得率最高可达93.2±1.5μg/g干醅,细菌总数最高达到1.73×1013 copies.(g干醅)-1,真菌总数最高达到6.49×1012 copies.(g干醅)-1。不同的提取方法对DGGE结果有明显的影响,6种基于SDS裂解的方法所获得的条带较多。【结论】结果表明,液氮研磨+溶菌酶+SDS高盐抽提法(方法3)为最优的醋醅总DNA提取方法。