NEW MURID RODENTS FROM THE LATE CENOZOIC OF YUSHE BASIN, SHANXI

<正> As scientific collaborators of the Chinese-American joint project "Neogene Rocks and Faunas, Yushe Basin, Shanxi, PRC", the present authors, with William R. Downs, Northern Arizona University, sampled the Yushe microfauna in the fall of 1987 and 1988. The fossil temains were retrieved by surface collection and by wet-sieving bulk quantities of sediment.     

Ecological distribution and niche segregation of sibling species: the case of bean beetles, Acanthoscelides obtectus Say and A. obvelatus Bridwell

Abstract.  1. Molecular techniques have greatly added to the number of known sympatric cryptic species in insects. Ecological differences between these newly distinguished species are little explored, but niches often appear to overlap strongly. These cases are good models for exploring new ideas about species coexistence and community structure.
2.  Acanthoscelides obtectus and A. obvelatus are two sister species of bean bruchids, which have been confused until the last decade. One important ecological difference between them has emerged, however: A. obtectus is multivoltine and now distributed worldwide, whereas A. obvelatus is univoltine and restricted to Mesoamerica. Where their ranges overlap, the two species share the same host plants and larvae can sometimes complete development in the same seed.
3. The analysis of 27 622 Mexican individuals of the two species in 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 indicates that their niches overlap, but are differentiated with respect to altitude and the kind of beans (wild vs. domesticated). The principal patterns in their relative abundance in different habitats, and at different seasons, were constant from one year to the next.
4. As sympatry of these species seems to be of recent origin, the observed niche differentiation may not have evolved in response to competition, but could instead be the consequence of physiological differences, evolved independently in each species in allopatry, that pre-adapted them for different altitudes and kinds of resources.
5. The combination of biological and historical factors thus appears to allow these two sibling species to coexist in sympatry, despite their broadly overlapping ecological niches.     

Characterization of superoxide-producing sites in isolated brain mitochondria

Mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes I and III have been shown to produce superoxide but the exact contribution and localization of individual sites have remained unclear. We approached this question investigating the effects of oxygen, substrates, inhibitors, and of the NAD+/NADH redox couple on H2O2 and superoxide production of isolated mitochondria from rat and human brain. Although rat brain mitochondria in the presence of glutamate+malate alone do generate only small amounts of H2O2 (0.04 +/- 0.02 nmol H2O2/min/mg), a substantial production is observed after the addition of the complex I inhibitor rotenone (0.68 +/- 0.25 nmol H2O2/min/mg) or in the presence of the respiratory substrate succinate alone (0.80 +/- 0.27 nmol H2O2/min/mg). The maximal rate of H2O2 generation by respiratory chain complex III observed in the presence of antimycin A was considerably lower (0.14 +/- 0.07 nmol H2O2/min/mg). Similar observations were made for mitochondria isolated from human parahippocampal gyrus. This is an indication that most of the superoxide radicals are produced at complex I and that high rates of production of reactive oxygen species are features of respiratory chain-inhibited mitochondria and of reversed electron flow, respectively. We determined the redox potential of the superoxide production site at complex I to be equal to -295 mV. This and the sensitivity to inhibitors suggest that the site of superoxide generation at complex I is most likely the flavine mononucleotide moiety. Because short-term incubation of rat brain mitochondria with H2O2 induced increased H2O2 production at this site we propose that reactive oxygen species can activate a self-accelerating vicious cycle causing mitochondrial damage and neuronal cell death.     

Comparison on the genotoxic effects of nuclear vs cytoplas-mic irradiation from the alteration of CD59 gene locus

Using microbeam to irradiate human-hamster hybrid AL cells with defined number of a particles in a highly localized spatial region, this paper showed that cytoplasmic irradiation induced very little toxicity. For example, the cell killing by 4α particle traversal through the cytoplasm was about 10%, and about 70% cells survived after their cytoplasm was irradiated with 32 a particles. In contrast, the survival fractions for nuclear irradiation at the same doses were 35% and less than 1% respectively. Mutation induction showed that while nuclear irradiation induced 3-4-fold more CD59- mutants than cytoplasmic irradiation at equivalent particle traversal, at an equitoxic dose level of 90% survival, the latter exposure mode induced 3.3-fold more mutants than nuclear irradiation. Moreover, using multiplex PCR to analyze five marker genes on chromosome 11 (WT, CAT, PTH, APO-A1 and RAS), the results showed that the majority of mutants induced by cytoplasmic irradiation had retained all of the marker genes ana     

粉纹夜蛾单粒包埋核型多角体病毒在同源细胞系中连续传代的研究(英文)

本文研究了粉纹夜蛾单粒包埋核型多角体病毒 (TnSNPV)在同源细胞连续传代及测定病毒特性的变化。结果表明 ,TnSNPV病毒的分子量为 115.8kbp。感染细胞 8小时后病毒开始复制 ,4 0h达到最大量。在整个传代期间 ,芽生病毒 (BV)对Tn 5B1 4细胞一直有很强的侵染力 ,大约可保持在 5.0logT CID50 /mL的侵染力。但随着传递代数的增加 ,多角体产量及对幼虫的侵染力明显下降 ;电镜观察结果发现 ,来自传代早期 (10代前 )的病毒克隆产生正常的多角体 ,内含大量的病毒粒子 ,而来自传代后期(15代以后 )的病毒克隆多为无粒子的多角体 ;内切酶分析和DNA杂交结果表明 ,分离的病毒克隆株与野生型病毒的基因组同源 ,通过连续传代后 ,发生某些DNA片段的缺失。因此 ,这些特性的改变是导致对幼虫毒力下降和产量降低的主要因素。     

粉纹夜蛾新细胞克隆株Tn5B-40的研究(英文)

从Tn5B1-4细胞系中克隆并筛选出了新克隆株Tn5B-40,测定分析结果表明,该克隆株对病毒(AcNPV)的敏感性和生长特性与原始细胞无显著差异,但在重组蛋白表达方面,无论对β-半乳糖苷酶还是碱性磷酸酶都明显地高于野生型细胞系,其中β-半乳糖苷酶在第6天的表达为原始细胞株的2倍,碱性磷酸酶的表达在第9天最高为原始细胞株的1.4倍。因此,该细胞是一株高产病毒和高表达重组蛋白的新克隆株。