High Temperatures Eliminate Wolbachia, a Cytoplasmic Incompatibility Inducing Endosymbiont, From the Two-spotted Spider Mite

Wolbachia can induce cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) in the arrhenotokous two-spotted spider mite between uninfected females and infected males. Cytoplasmic incompatibility is expressed through a male-biased sex ratio and a low hatchability, and can be suppressed by removing Wolbachia from spider mites reared on a diet with antibiotics. Here we investigated whether heat-treatment can elimate Wolbachia from infected mites. Using a PCR assay with a Wolbachia-specific primer pair (ftsZ), and by standard crosses, we were able to show that 71 per cent of the mites had lost the Wolbachia infection after rearing the infected population at 32 ± 0.5 °C for four generations. The infection could be completely removed when mites were reared at 32 ± 0.5 °C for six generations. Curing through high temperatures could be one of the reasons why mixed infected/uninfected populations occur in the field. An additional consequence of rearing mites at 32 ± 0.5 °C was the shortened development time. The effect of environmental temperature on the abundance of Wolbachia and possible behavioural consequences for the spider mite are discussed.     

The effect of chloride on the thermal inactivation of oxygen evolution

The effect of Cl depletion on the sensitivity of the oxygen-evolving complex of Photosystem II (PS II) to heat treatment was examined by a parallel study of the Hill activity (H₂O2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol), Cl^- binding (by ³⁵Cl-NMR) and Mn release (by EPR). The extent of thermal inactivation in spinach thylakoids was found to depend on the degree of Cl^- depletion in the sample. In partially Cl^--depleted thylakoids, mild heating (38°C, 3 min) was found to eliminate inflections in plots of both Hill activity versus [Cl^-] (at low light intensity) and excess ³⁵Cl-NMR linewidth versus [Cl^-] (in the dark). In PS II membranes, the same treatment reduced the differences between the linewidth maxima and minima, particularly in the region of 0.3 mM and 7.0 mM Cl^-, as compared to unheated membranes. These results indicate that mild heating affects the Cl^--binding domains within the oxygen-evolving complex, OEC, EPR measurements of the temperature dependence of Mn release from heated thylakoids show that Mn release begins to correlate with the loss of Hill activity only at higher temperatures, where the OEC is already substantially inactivated. We conclude from these studies that the Cl^--binding domains of the OEC constitute a principal site of damage by heat treatment.     

BMMYA’平板-Fast blue RR顶层琼脂法高效筛选高酶活脂肪酶

建立了一种高效筛选高酶活或高产脂肪酶茵株的平板方法。该方法以华根霉（Rhizopus chinensis CCTCCM201021）脂肪酶基因proRCL在毕赤酵母中构建的基因突变文库为筛选对象,利用BMMYA’平板-Fast blue RR顶层琼脂法对其中高酶活或高产的脂肪酶突变株进行筛选,将待筛茵株接种至含有2％甲醇的BMMYA’平板上,30℃生长并诱导4～5d后,平板经脂肪酶致死温度65℃处理1h,冰浴、室温平衡后,向平板中倾入Fast blue RR顸层琼脂。2min内周围显示出明显的黑褐色的菌株为高酶活或高产突变株。该方法简便,快速,高效而且准确,筛选阳性率可达到90％。