Presence and Analysis of Plasmids in Human and Animal Associated Arcobacter Species

In this study, we report the screening of four Arcobacter species for the presence of small and large plasmids. Plasmids were present in 9.9% of the 273 examined strains. One Arcobacter cryaerophilus and four Arcobacter butzleri plasmids were selected for further sequencing. The size of three small plasmids isolated from A. butzleri and the one from A. cryaerophilus strains ranged between 4.8 and 5.1 kb, and the size of the large plasmid, isolated from A. butzleri, was 27.4 kbp. The G+C content of all plasmids ranged between 25.4% and 26.2%. A total of 95% of the large plasmid sequence represents coding information, which contrasts to the 20 to 30% for the small plasmids. Some of the open reading frames showed a high homology to putative conserved domains found in other related organisms, such as replication, mobilization and genes involved in type IV secretion system. The large plasmid carried 35 coding sequences, including seven genes in a contiguous region of 11.6 kbp that encodes an orthologous type IV secretion system found in the Wolinella succinogenes genome, Helicobacter pylori and Campylobacter jejuni plasmids, which makes this plasmid interesting for further exploration.     

Regulation of Soybean Nitrogen Fixation in Response to Rhizosphere Oxygen: II. Quantification of Nodule Gas Permeability

Nodule nitrogen fixation rates are regulated by a mechanism which is responsive to the rhizosphere oxygen concentration. In some legumes, this oxygen-sensitive mechanism appears to involve changes in the gas permeability of a diffusion barrier in the nodule cortex. In soybean evidence for such a mechanism has not been found. The purpose of this research was to make quantitative measurements of soybean nodule gas permeability to test the hypothesis that soybean nodule gas permeability is under physiological control and responsive to the rhizosphere oxygen concentration. Intact hydroponically grown soybean plants were exposed to altered rhizosphere oxygen concentrations, and the nodule gas permeability, acetylene reduction and nodule respiration rates were repeatedly assayed. After a change in the external oxygen concentration, nitrogenase activity and nodule respiration rates displayed a short-term transient response after which the values returned to rates similar to those observed under ambient oxygen conditions. In contrast to steady-state nitrogenase activity and nodule respiration, nodule gas permeability was dramatically affected by the change in oxygen concentration. Decreasing the external oxygen concentration to 0.1 cubic millimeter per cubic millimeter resulted in a mean increase in nodule gas permeability of 63%. Increasing the rhizosphere oxygen concentration resulted in decreased nodule gas permeability. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that soybean nodules are capable of regulating nitrogen fixation and nodule respiration rates in response to changes in the rhizosphere oxygen concentration and indicate that the regulatory mechanism involves physiological control of the nodule gas permeability.     

Dynamics of long-leaved sundew Drosera intermedia populations at two extremes of a hydrological gradient

Densities of Drosera intermedia were low in two studied habitats (10–25 ramets m⁻¹), a path through a wet heath (short inundation in spring, low soil moisture in summer) and a pool edge (longlasting inundation, high soil moisture in summer). The low densities could be explained by the observed low recruitment and high adult mortality.
The low recruitment resulted from: (1) a high first year mortality of the large number of seedlings that emerged each year in the path population, caused by summer drought and cover with algae after heavy rainfall; (2) the absence in two years out of three of seedling emergence at the pool edge, due to the longlasting inundation. In neither population any seedlings survived to flower; (3) low vegetative reproduction rate.
Adult mortality during the growing season was caused by drought, which did not occur at the pool edge. Rapid senescence in autumn, caused by summer drought on the path and by a rapid submersion after heavy rainfall at the pool edge, was associated with a high winter mortality.     

Water relations of turgor recovery and restiffening of wilted cabbage leaves in the absence of water uptake

A novel phenomenon in which wilted cabbage leaves appeared to regain positive turgor pressures without additional water uptake has been previously reported (J Levitt [1986] Plant Physiol 82: 147-153). These experiments were replicated and the biophysical nature of turgor recovery characterized. Leaf water potential and its components were assayed in hydrated, wilted, and desiccated leaves which appeared to regain turgor after wilting. The hypotheses that turgor recovery was due to an increased volumetric elastic modulus (ε), or alternatively the result of solute redistribution were tested. Quantitative evidence that turgor recovery occurs in excised leaves was found. Leaf turgor pressure in hydrated leaves (~0.6 megapascal) decreased to zero upon wilting. After continued desiccation, turgor pressure returned to approximately 0.3 megapascal even though leaf relative water content declined. The ε of hydrated leaves was large and there was no evidence of an increased ε in the turgor-recovered leaves. Solute mobilization occurred during desiccation. The apoplastic osmotic potential decreased from −0.15 to −0.44 megapascal in hydrated and turgor-recovered leaves, respectively, and solutes were transported from the lamina to the midrib tissue. Solute redistribution coupled with the high ε may have resulted in localized turgor recovery in specific cells in the desiccated leaves.     

A rapid non-destructive assay to quantify soybean nodule gas permeability

The low gas permeability of a diffusion barrier in the cortex of soybean nodules plays a significant role in the protection of nitrogenase from oxygen inactivation. It may also set an upper limit on nodule respiration and nitrogen fixation rates. Two methods which have been used to quantify the gas permeability of leguminous nodules are reviewed and found to be unreliable. A new assay technique for determining both the nodule activity and gas permeability is developed and tested. This ‘lag-phase’ assay is based on the time nodules require to reach steady-state ethylene production after being exposed to acetylene. The technique is rapid, insensitive to errors in biochemical parameters associated with nitrogenase, and is non-destructive. The method was tested with intact aeroponically grown soybean plants for which the mean nodule gas permeability was found to be 13.3×10⁻³ mms⁻¹. This corresponds to a layer of cells approximately 35 um thick and is consistent with previously reported values.     

Soybean nodule gas permeability,nitrogen fixation and dirunal cycles in soil temperature

While diurnal cycles in nitrogen fixation rates are sometimes assumed to result from diurnal variation in photosynthetically active radiation, contradicting evidence exists that indicate soil temperature is the primary environmental influence. These studies assessed the significance of temperature on soybean nitrogen fixation under field conditions. Two groups of intact field-grown soybean plants, one at ambient and the other exposed to a 10°C diurnal variation in soil temperature, were nondestructively assayed for acetylene reduction rates. Activity was closely associated with soil temperature (R²=0.85), even when temperature was 12 h out of phase with ambient. Data were also obtained to determine if the effects of rhizosphere temperature on nitrogen fixation are mediated through an effect on the nodule oxygen permeability. Nodule oxygen permeability of intact, aeroponically grown soybean was closely correlated with the diurnal changes in temperature (R²=0.90).     

The reproductive behaviour of a clonal herbaceous plant, the longleaved sundew Drosera intermedia, in different heathland habitats

The reproductive behaviour of the longleaved sundew Drosera intermedia Hayne was studied in three hydrologically differing heathland habitats a pool edge, an old path through the wet heath and a seepage area
Sexual reproductive allocation (SRA) (the slope of the regression of sexual biomass on vegetative biomass m a given season) differed strongly between years (related to temperature and precipitation) and habitats Averaged over years, path plants had a higher SRA than plants in the seepage area and at the pool edge
Asexual reproductive allocation, expressed as the size-dependent probability of reproducing asexually, did not differ between habitats in most years
The observations agreed with general life history theory SRA was high in the path habitat where adult survival chances were low and juvenile (= seed, first year seedling) survival was high SRA was lower in the seepage area where adult survival chances were higher and juvenile survival lower At the pool edge, a habitat with high adult mortality and low juvenile establishment, the predicted optimal reproductive behaviour, a high SRA, was not observed due to environmental constraints (inundation)