Factors affecting equal catchability in two swallowtail butterflies, Papilio polyxenes and P.glaucus

Abstract. 1. Recapture probabilities were analysed for individually marked black swallowtails, Papilio polyxenes F., and tiger swallowtails, P.glaucus L. (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae).
2. Recapture rates differed with sex and behaviour at time of capture for P.polyxenes , but not with age. For P.glaucus , only differences related to behaviour at time of capture were significant.
3. Black swallowtail males that were not physically restrained in identification had a recapture probability (73%) that was significantly higher than the 45% for males that were captured and handled. The higher rate was also exhibited by released, laboratory-reared males.
4. The capture effect was due to increased dispersal out of the areas and not to avoidance of capture or the capture site.     

Metabolome and water status phenotyping of Arabidopsis under abiotic stress cues reveals new insight into ESK1 function

Metabolomic investigation of the freezing-tolerant Arabidopsis mutant esk1 revealed large alterations in polar metabolite content in roots and shoots. Stress metabolic markers were found to be among the most significant metabolic markers associated with the mutation, but also compounds related to growth regulation or nutrition. The metabolic phenotype of esk1 was also compared to that of wild type (WT) under various environmental constraints, namely cold, salinity and dehydration. The mutant was shown to express constitutively a subset of metabolic responses which fits with the core of stress metabolic responses in the WT. But remarkably, the most specific metabolic responses to cold acclimation were not phenocopied by esk1 mutation and remained fully inducible in the mutant at low temperature. Under salt stress, esk1 accumulated lower amounts of Na⁺ in leaves than the WT, and under dehydration stress its metabolic profile and osmotic potential were only slightly impacted. These phenotypes are consistent with the hypothesis of an altered water status in esk1 , which actually exhibited basic lower water content (WC) and transpiration rate (TR) than the WT. Taken together, the results suggest that ESK1 does not function as a specific cold acclimation gene, but could rather be involved in water homeostasis.     

Reconstitution of Embryo-Like Structures from Sea Urchin Embryo Cells: Distinction Between Cell-Cell and Cell-Substrate Associations

Sea urchin embryos can be dissociated into a suspension of single cells that reconstitute embryo-like structures. When reconstitution is conducted in stationary cultures the first step is attachment of the cells to the culture plate, which requires calcium and metabolic energy but not protein synthesis. We have found that protease treated cells form cell-cell associations in stationary cultures without attaching to the culture plates, and that cell-plate attachments are unaffected by inhibition of protein synthesis. These data suggest that cell surface proteins are needed for cell-plate attachment and that these proteins are present on freshly dissociated cells. We also demonstrated that butanol extracted cells attach to the plates, but do not form functional cell-cell associations unless the butanol extracted material is restored to them. We conclude that sea urchin embryo cells contain two classes of attachment components. The first class functions in the cell-plate attachments, is protease sensitive, and not extracted by butanol; the second class is necessary for cell-cell associations, is protease insensitive, and extracted by butanol. Since protease treated cells reconstitute embryo-like structures without attaching to the culture plates, only the second class of attachment components is necessary for embryo reconstitution.     

Trypanosoma cervi from Alaskan Reindeer,Rangifer tarandus1

Twenty-nine (64.4%) of 45 reindeer, Rangifer tarandus, examined over a two-year period were infected with trypanosomes. Trypomastigotes and dividing epimastigotes were found in the blood of fawns, cows, and bulls. Morphometric analysis of bloodstream trypomastigotes from reindeer and comparison of these parasites with similar stages of trypanosomes from elk, mule deer, and white-tailed deer from the contiguous United States proved them conspecific; the trypanosomes from these members of the Cervidae are identified as Trypanosoma cervi Kingston & Morton, 1975. This is the first report of trypanosomes from reindeer. No pathogenic effects are known to be caused by these parasites.     

Sex, Symbiosis and Coral Reef Communities

SYNOPSIS. Questions about how today's corals and coral reefswill fare in a future that holds not only increasing directanthropogenic impacts, but also global change, cannot be satisfactorilyanswered if we do not understand the relations of corals andreef systems to today's environmental conditions. This paperdiscusses four aspects of modern reef biology: coral reproduction,coral population biology, the coral-zooxanthella symbiosis,and reef community ecology. Conclusions of this survey of currentknowledge are that complexities of cnidarian reproductive biology,and our rudimentary knowledge of reproductive patterns in reefcnidarians, make forecasting based on current knowledge uncertainat best; new discoveries about the coral algal symbiotic systemsuggest a possible mode of adjustment to environmental changethat warrants a strong research effort; coral communities ofthe future may well be unlike what we are familiar with today;and these new assemblages will be shaped by the interactionof novel environmental conditions and the characteristics ofindividual reef species.     

Quantitation of malaria sporozoites transmitted in vitro during salivation by wild Afrotropical Anopheles

Abstract. The malaria transmission potential of wild, infective Anopheles from western Kenya was evaluated by determining the number of sporozoites transmitted in vitro by salivation when their mouthparts were inserted into capillary tubes containing either sucrose or blood. With sucrose, 86.6% of 102 infective Anopheles transmitted a geometric mean (GM) of 3.84 sporozoites (range 1–34). With blood, 23.1% of 104 infective Anopheles , tested on the day of collection, transmitted a GM of 2.30 sporozoites (range 1–117). For Anopheles held 5 days postcapture before testing with blood, 53.6% of 56 transmitted a GM of 6.04 sporozoites (range 1–420). Transmitting Anopheles contained significantly more salivary gland sporozoites than non-transmitters. No significant differences were detected between Anopheles gambiae Giles sensu lato and Anopheles funestus Giles in sporozoite transmission by individuals with sporozoites in their salivary glands.
Sporozoites were detected microscopically in the salivary duct from heads in 80.3% of 117 infective Anopheles (GM=11.2, range 1–71). Sporozoite detection in mosquito heads by ELISA was 25% less efficient than microscopic detection.
Over 98% of the infective Anopheles transmitted less than twenty-five sporozoites. Transmitted sporozoites represented only about 3% of the total sporozoites in the salivary glands suggesting that sporozoite transmission may be restricted to sporozoites in the salivary duct at the time of feeding. Results are discussed in relation to anti-sporozoite vaccine development.     

Examination of the 'founder effect' in biodiversity research: patterns and imbalances in the published literature

We reviewed 2524 articles published from 1987 to 1995 in five international journals, Conservation Biology , Biological Conservation , Biodiversity and Conservation , Ecological Applications , and the Journal of Applied Ecology , to assess patterns and imbalances in biodiversity research in the following subject areas: locations where research was conducted, types of organisms studied, types of ecosystems studied, types of methodologies used, and types of stresses investigated. Biodiversity research was found to be narrowly focused with little deviation from its initial course set of being a discipline concerned largely with the implications of forest habitat loss on charismatic terrestrial megafauna; i.e. the 'founder effect' is very much in evidence. The 'sleeping dragon' of ignored marine biodiversity is really symptomatic of a wider problem, and can perhaps be referred to as a 'hibernating hydra' of many imbalances due to, for example, under-representations of research from developing nations, or on amphibians and invertebrates, alpine and arctic systems, sociological components and chemical stresses etc. It is time to take steps to actively awaken the creature so that conservation biology/applied ecology can become more pluralistic in scope.