Influence of available aluminium on soil micro-organisms

P. ILLMER, K. MARSCHALL AND F. SCHINNER. 1995. Forest soils were selected which covered a wide range of aluminium concentrations (7 to μmol g^-1dry matter), but which differed as little as possible from one another in their soil chemical characteristics, including pH. These soils were examined with respect to microbial biomass and respiration, activity of cellulase, N-mineralization, colony-forming units of bacteria and fungi, and the concentrations of several inorganic soil components. The influences of altitude, climate, vegetation and, especially, of soil acidity could be kept to a minimum and so differences between the soil microfloras could clearly be attributed to Al concentration.
Al concentration was recognized to be the main inhibiting factor for the microbial biomass in soil. While N-mineralization was severely inhibited by aluminium, cellulase activity was hardly affected by increasing Al concentrations.
By taking the Al concentration along with various other soil chemical parameters a linear model could be developed that allowed more than 98% of the variability of the microbial biomass in soil to be explained.     

文化景观作为区域景观研究概念——德国图林根州文化景观研究、教学与规划实践

近20 年来,对风景园林的文化阐释成为埃尔夫特应用科技大学文化景观研究组持续以来的关注焦点。期间,该研究组系统地分析了决定图林根州文化景观的各种文化因素和要素,深入了解文化和自然环境中的复杂相互作用,以此来表述和研究图林根州的区域景观系统。首先,阐述了当下德国风景园林学术语境中“文化景观”的含义,强调文化对于景观质量的价值。继而,论述了对景观进行优化、保护和设计中无法否定和回避的文化与经济因素。这样既要发展经济又要保护文化的矛盾性质,是文化景观概念所理解的人类生存的重要性质所在。文化景观研究能够在看似统一的地理区域中,形成和发展为具有可识别性的、差异化的动态结构。此外,文化景观研究还涉及其他因素,诸如生物多样性与文化多样性的丧失、生态系统服务功能滞后、经济价值的低估、国土空间连接性以及缺少实质性评价的人文特征。对历史性文化景观价值的认知给风景园林学带来了机遇,对历史景观不仅要保护,而且要创造并提供各种富有成效的展示,以参与文化景观的未来发展。维护和整合风景园林规划设计中文化景观遗产的研究实践,可以通过基础设施项目的环境影响评估到建成区的景观设计整体过程中得以贯彻。更好地理解文化景观,有助于在空间规划和发展中对其更加谨慎地进行处理,以提高文化景观研究的科学和策略意识。     

Immunoglobulin G galactosylation and sialylation are associated with pregnancy-induced improvement of rheumatoid arthritis and the postpartum flare: results from a large prospective cohort study

Introduction  

Improvement of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) during pregnancy has been causatively associated with increased galactosylation of immunoglobulin G (IgG) N-glycans. Since previous studies were small, did not include the postpartum flare and did not study sialylation, these issues were addressed in the present study.     

The effect of genomic information on optimal contribution selection in livestock breeding programs

Background

Long-term benefits in animal breeding programs require that increases in genetic merit be balanced with the need to maintain diversity (lost due to inbreeding). This can be achieved by using optimal contribution selection. The availability of high-density DNA marker information enables the incorporation of genomic data into optimal contribution selection but this raises the question about how this information affects the balance between genetic merit and diversity.

Methods

The effect of using genomic information in optimal contribution selection was examined based on simulated and real data on dairy bulls. We compared the genetic merit of selected animals at various levels of co-ancestry restrictions when using estimated breeding values based on parent average, genomic or progeny test information. Furthermore, we estimated the proportion of variation in estimated breeding values that is due to within-family differences.

Results

Optimal selection on genomic estimated breeding values increased genetic gain. Genetic merit was further increased using genomic rather than pedigree-based measures of co-ancestry under an inbreeding restriction policy. Using genomic instead of pedigree relationships to restrict inbreeding had a significant effect only when the population consisted of many large full-sib families; with a half-sib family structure, no difference was observed. In real data from dairy bulls, optimal contribution selection based on genomic estimated breeding values allowed for additional improvements in genetic merit at low to moderate inbreeding levels. Genomic estimated breeding values were more accurate and showed more within-family variation than parent average breeding values; for genomic estimated breeding values, 30 to 40% of the variation was due to within-family differences. Finally, there was no difference between constraining inbreeding via pedigree or genomic relationships in the real data.

Conclusions

The use of genomic estimated breeding values increased genetic gain in optimal contribution selection. Genomic estimated breeding values were more accurate and showed more within-family variation, which led to higher genetic gains for the same restriction on inbreeding. Using genomic relationships to restrict inbreeding provided no additional gain, except in the case of very large full-sib families.     

K2P18.1 translates T cell receptor signals into thymic regulatory T cell development

It remains largely unclear how thymocytes translate relative differences in T cell receptor (TCR) signal strength into distinct developmental programs that driv...     

Comparing genomic prediction accuracy from purebred,crossbred and combined purebred and crossbred reference populations in sheep

Background

The accuracy of genomic prediction depends largely on the number of animals with phenotypes and genotypes. In some industries, such as sheep and beef cattle, data are often available from a mixture of breeds, multiple strains within a breed or from crossbred animals. The objective of this study was to compare the accuracy of genomic prediction for several economically important traits in sheep when using data from purebreds, crossbreds or a combination of those in a reference population.

Methods

The reference populations were purebred Merinos, crossbreds of Border Leicester (BL), Poll Dorset (PD) or White Suffolk (WS) with Merinos and combinations of purebred and crossbred animals. Genomic breeding values (GBV) were calculated based on genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP), using a genomic relationship matrix calculated based on 48 599 Ovine SNP (single nucleotide polymorphisms) genotypes. The accuracy of GBV was assessed in a group of purebred industry sires based on the correlation coefficient between GBV and accurate estimated breeding values based on progeny records.

Results

The accuracy of GBV for Merino sires increased with a larger purebred Merino reference population, but decreased when a large purebred Merino reference population was augmented with records from crossbred animals. The GBV accuracy for BL, PD and WS breeds based on crossbred data was the same or tended to decrease when more purebred Merinos were added to the crossbred reference population. The prediction accuracy for a particular breed was close to zero when the reference population did not contain any haplotypes of the target breed, except for some low accuracies that were obtained when predicting PD from WS and vice versa.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that crossbred animals can be used for genomic prediction of purebred animals using 50 k SNP marker density and GBLUP, but crossbred data provided lower accuracy than purebred data. Including data from distant breeds in a reference population had a neutral to slightly negative effect on the accuracy of genomic prediction. Accounting for differences in marker allele frequencies between breeds had only a small effect on the accuracy of genomic prediction from crossbred or combined crossbred and purebred reference populations.     

Autoantibody systems in rheumatoid arthritis: specificity, sensitivity and diagnostic value

This review focuses on the mechanisms of stress response in the synovial tissue of rheumatoid arthritis. The major stress factors, such as heat stress, shear stress, proinflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress, are discussed and reviewed, focusing on their potential to induce a stress response in the synovial tissue. Several pathways of stress signalling molecules are found to be activated in the synovial membrane of rheumatoid arthritis; of these the most important examples are heat shock proteins, mitogen-activated protein kinases, stress-activated protein kinases and molecules involved in the oxidative stress pathways. The expression of these pathways in vitro and in vivo as well as the consequences of stress signalling in the rheumatoid synovium are discussed. Stress signalling is part of a cellular response to potentially harmful stimuli and thus is essentially involved in the process of synovitis. Stress signalling pathways are therefore new and promising targets of future anti-rheumatic therapies.     

Functional knock down of VCAM1 in mice mediated by endoplasmatic reticulum retained intrabodies

Functional knockdowns mediated by endoplasmatic reticulum-retained antibodies (ER intrabodies) are a promising tool for research because they allow functional interference on the protein level. We demonstrate for the first time that ER intrabodies can induce a knock-down phenotype in mice. Surface VCAM1 was suppressed in bone marrow of heterozygous and homozygous ER intrabody mice (iER-VCAM1 mice). iER-VCAM1 mice did not have a lethal phenotype, in contrast to the constitutive knockout of VCAM1, but adult mice exhibited physiological effects in the form of aberrant distribution of immature B-cells in blood and bone marrow. The capability to regulate knock-down strength may spark a new approach for the functional study of membrane and plasma proteins, which may especially be valuable for generating mouse models that more closely resemble disease states than classic knockouts do.     

Identification of proteins encoded by Epstein-Barr virus trans-activator genes.

Specific antisera were generated to characterize Epstein-Barr virus proteins reported to have trans-activating properties. Open reading frame BRLF1 was found to be expressed in two modifications in vivo, with molecular sizes ranging from 94 to 98 kilodaltons (kDa) depending on the cell line, whereas only one protein (Raji cells, 96 kDa) was detected by in vitro translation. Open reading frame BZLF1 encoded polypeptides of 38 and 35 kDa and additional smaller forms. A BZLF1-encoded 30-kDa protein could be detected under conditions in which expression was restricted to immediate early genes. Nuclear localization could be detected under conditions in which expression was restricted to immediate early genes. Nuclear localization could be shown for the proteins derived from reading frames BZLF1 and BMLF1. BMLF1 expression gave a heterogeneous protein pattern, with molecular sizes between 45 and 70 kDa, including a predominant 60-kDa protein detected in different B-cell lines.