The bivalve boring Cuenulites amygdaloides nov. isp. in siliceous sponges from the Upper Cretaceous of Germany

Lower Campanian siliceous sponges from epicontinental deposits of the Subhercynian Cretaceous Basin in Germany contain amygdaloidal depressions which are distinguished as a new ichnospecies of the ichnogenus Cuenulites. These bioerosion traces are interpreted as borings of semi-endolithic bivalves, produced without significant rotation movement, probably mostly by chemical action. As there are no signs of tissue reaction in the bored sponges, the structure is considered to be produced post mortem to the sponge, probably in a foreshore-shoreface setting, with redeposition offshore.     

The Diatom Attachment Scar Ophthalmichnus lyolithon igen. et isp. n.

A number of benthic diatoms (including species of the genera Cocconeis, Achnanthes, and Amphora) etch shallow attachment scars in carbonate hard substrates. The morphology of these microbioerosion traces mirrors the elliptical to biconvex outline of the diatoms, which, in its most common appearance, is expressed as a distinct ring-shaped groove. The traces are established as new ichnogenus and -species Ophthalmichnus lyolithon. The diatoms are assumed to form the etching scars by means of their adhesive mucilage composed of acidic polysaccharides, probably in order to enhance adhesion.     

Three-dimensional morphology and palaeobiology of the trace fossil Dactyloidites jordii nov. isp. from the Carboniferous of England

The diverse ichnological assemblage from the outcrops near Howick (Northumberland, United Kingdom) is exceptionally well-preserved. Among these Carboniferous ichnotaxa is a new ichnospecies of Dactyloidites. Specimens were collected and processed using high-resolution serial grinding and photography to produce an accurate and precise three-dimensional model of these new burrows in full colour. The model produced in association with petrographic thin sections and field observations is used as the basis for comparison between Dactyloidites jordii nov. isp. and other ichnospecies of Dactyloidites. The current taxonomic status of the ichnogenus is examined and reviewed. D. jordii nov. isp. is a broadly bisymmetrical, stellate to palmate burrow composed of numerous long, narrow rays that exhibit three orders of branching arranged into tiered galleries radiating from a central shaft. The trace maker is suggested to be a vermiform organism with an adaptive burrowing strategy that facilitates alteration of its burrow construction to accommodate suboptimal sediment conditions. The adaptive nature of trace-making organisms and the inherent anisotropy of many burrowed media highlight the need for ichnologists to provide a type series rather than a single holotype, in order to capture the inherent range of common burrow morphologies.     

Scolicia shirahamensis isp. nov.: a triple-corded scolicia and its ichnological implications

Abstract

Peculiar meniscate burrows with three sediment cords occur in early to middle Miocene tidal-flat deposits of southwestern Japan. Two of the cords are situated at the bottom and the other is at its center. Detailed observations of the burrow structures and comparative neoichnological studies of modern spatangoid burrows in a tidal flat revealed that the former two were true drainage tubes and the latter was fecal in origin. The trace fossil was thus assigned to the ichnogenus Scolicia. Based on these findings, a new ichnospecies Scolicia shirahamensis isp. nov. has been described here. The central sediment cord is seemingly identical to the drainage tube of the ichnogenus Bichordites, another ichnogenus that has been commonly ascribed to a fossil spatangoid burrow, similar to Scolicia. Careless ichnogeneric identification of a spatangoid burrow, based only on the central sediment cord, therefore, may produce an incorrect identification.     

Stellavelum arborensis igen., sp. nov., Stellavelum uncinum igen., isp. nov. and Termitichnus namibiensis isp. nov.; New Ichnofossils from Cenozoic deposits of Namaqualand,South Africa

Three new ichnotaxa are described from Cenozoic paralic to continental sediments on the west coast of South Africa. Stellavelum arborensis and Stellavelum uncinum are assigned to a mixed Skolithos and Cruziana ichnofacies and Termitichnus namibiensis is assigned to the Termitichnus ichnofacies. An interpretation of the sedimentary record shows that the Stellavelum trace makers were probably sediment ingesting annelids that lived in dense colonies in sheltered lagoonal environments during Neogene times. The Termitichnus namibiensis trace fossils are interpreted as actively backfilled termite nests which form an early to mid‐Pleistocene palimpsest, terrestrial ichnofabric which is superimposed on the older marine sediments.     

Gyrophyllites cristinae isp. nov. from Lower Ordovician Shallow-Marine Deposits of Northwest Argentina

Abstract

The lower Paleozoic marine siliciclastic succession of the Central Andean Basin, northwestern Argentina, provides a valuable record of the onset of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event in western Gondwana. A new ichnospecies of rosette trace fossil, Gyrophyllites cristinae, is documented from lower and upper Tremadocian (Tr1 and Tr2) deposits of this basin. It is characterized by five to six non-overlapping petaloid lobes and can be easily differentiated from the other four formally defined ichnospecies. Gyrophyllites cristinae occurs at the top of hummocky cross-stratified sandstone regularly interbedded with mudstone. These deposits are interpreted as reflecting the alternation of high-energy storm events and low-energy fair-weather conditions immediately below the fair-weather wave base, representing deposition in offshore transition environments. Gyrophyllites has been traditionally interpreted as the product of worms of uncertain taxonomic affinity that mined the sediment in search for food (fodinichnia). The occurrence of Gyrophyllites cristinae in these Ordovician deposits records post-storm colonization. Storms may have increased oxygenation and supplied fresh organic detritus that were exploited by worm-like, surface detritus- or shallow deposit-feeders exploring the uppermost silt-rich fine-grained sediments.     

The Trace Fossil Polykampton cabellae isp. nov. from the Pagliaro Formation (Paleocene), Northern Apennines,Italy: A Record of Nutritional Sediment Sequestration by a Deep Sea Invertebrate

Polykampton cabellae isp. nov., a new ichnospecies of Polykampton Ooster, 1869, occurs in two localities of the Pagliaro Formation (Paleocene) in Liguria, Italy, 1.5–3.5 cm below the top of light grey or rose, thick-bedded turbiditic marlstones, which are capped by a thin layer of dark grey, non-calcareous mudstones being the background sediments. This is a ribbon-like, winding, rarely branched trace fossil that consists of 1) a passively-filled axial tunnel and 2) complex, partly imbricated, side lobes, which are composed mostly of dark grey mudstones, the same as in the background sediments. The lobes are produced by multiple probing. The producer, supposedly a polychaete, collected organic-rich, nutritional mud from the sea-floor surface, packed it in a deeper layer in the organic-poor marl, and reworked for feeding. This enabled a stable feeding during longer times of fluctuating supply of organic matter to the sea floor.     

真菌生物量指示剂麦角固醇的分离及测定方法

麦角固醇作为真菌细胞膜的重要组成成分,结构稳定,可作为真菌生长的指示物质。综述了表征真菌生物量的麦角固醇的分离及测定方法,其中麦角固醇的萃取方法有传统的皂化回流法、快速物理萃取、超声波萃取、超临界流体萃取等,测定方法有高效液相色谱法、气相色谱-质谱法、液相色谱-质谱法、薄层色谱法等。并对这些方法的应用及在堆肥过程中运用麦角固醇估计真菌生物量的可行性进行了展望。     

Caulostrepsis spiralis isp. nov., Miocene grand bay formation of Carriacou (Grenadines,lesser antilles)

A new ichnospecies of Caulostrepsis, namely C. spiralis, is described from the Miocene Grand Bay Formation of Carriacou (Grenadines, Lesser Antilles). It occurs in association with C. cretacea and a common progenitor, most likely a spionid polychaete annelid, was most likely for its production.     

The Development of Fungal Networks in Complex Environments

Fungi are of fundamental importance in terrestrial ecosystems playing important roles in decomposition, nutrient cycling, plant symbiosis and pathogenesis, and have significant potential in several areas of environmental biotechnology such as biocontrol and bioremediation. In all of these contexts, the fungi are growing in environments exhibiting spatio-temporal nutritional and structural heterogeneities. In this work, a discrete mathematical model is derived that allows detailed understanding of how events at the hyphal level are influenced by the nature of various environmental heterogeneities. Mycelial growth and function is simulated in a range of environments including homogeneous conditions, nutritionally-heterogeneous conditions and structurally-heterogeneous environments, the latter emulating porous media such as soils. Our results provide further understanding of the crucial processes involved in fungal growth, nutrient translocation and concomitant functional consequences, e.g. acidification, and have implications for the biotechnological application of fungi.     

Heart-specific Deletion of CnB1 Reveals Multiple Mechanisms Whereby Calcineurin Regulates Cardiac Growth and Function

Calcineurin is a protein phosphatase that is uniquely regulated by sustained increases in intracellular Ca²⁺ following signal transduction events. Calcineurin controls cellular proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and inducible gene expression following stress and neuroendocrine stimulation. In the adult heart, calcineurin regulates hypertrophic growth of cardiomyocytes in response to pathologic insults that are associated with altered Ca²⁺ handling. Here we determined that calcineurin signaling is directly linked to the proper control of cardiac contractility, rhythm, and the expression of Ca²⁺-handling genes in the heart. Our approach involved a cardiomyocyte-specific deletion using a CnB1-LoxP-targeted allele in mice and three different cardiac-expressing Cre alleles/transgenes. Deletion of calcineurin with the Nkx2.5-Cre knock-in allele resulted in lethality at 1 day after birth due to altered right ventricular morphogenesis, reduced ventricular trabeculation, septal defects, and valvular overgrowth. Slightly later deletion of calcineurin with the α-myosin heavy chain Cre transgene resulted in lethality in early mid adulthood that was characterized by substantial reductions in cardiac contractility, severe arrhythmia, and reduced myocyte content in the heart. Young calcineurin heart-deleted mice died suddenly after pressure overload stimulation or neuroendocrine agonist infusion, and telemetric monitoring of older mice showed arrhythmia leading to sudden death. Mechanistically, loss of calcineurin reduced expression of key Ca²⁺-handling genes that likely lead to arrhythmia and reduced contractility. Loss of calcineurin also directly impacted cellular proliferation in the postnatal developing heart. These results reveal multiple mechanisms whereby calcineurin regulates cardiac development and myocyte contractility.     

Phylogenetic Analysis of the Complete Genome Sequence of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Encephalitozoon cuniculi</Emphasis> Supports the Fungal Origin of Microsporidia and Reveals a High Frequency of Fast-Evolving Genes

Microsporidia are unicellular eukaryotes living as obligate intracellular parasites. Lacking mitochondria, they were initially considered as having diverged before the endosymbiosis at the origin of mitochondria. That microsporidia were primitively amitochondriate was first questioned by the discovery of microsporidial sequences homologous to genes encoding mitochondrial proteins and then refuted by the identification of remnants of mitochondria in their cytoplasm. Various molecular phylogenies also cast doubt on the early divergence of microsporidia, these organisms forming a monophyletic group with or within the fungi. The 2001 proteins putatively encoded by the complete genome of Encephalitozoon cuniculi provided powerful data to test this hypothesis. Phylogenetic analysis of 99 proteins selected as adequate phylogenetic markers indicated that the E. cuniculi sequences having the lowest evolutionary rates preferentially clustered with fungal sequences or, more rarely, with both animal and fungal sequences. Because sequences with low evolutionary rates are less sensitive to the long-branch attraction artifact, we concluded that microsporidia are evolutionarily related to fungi. This analysis also allowed comparing the accuracy of several phylogenetic algorithms for a fast-evolving lineage with real rather than simulated sequences.This article contains online supplementary material.Reviewing Editor: Dr. Wen-Hsiung LiSupplementary material is available at     

The Inhibition of Fungal Growth in Resistant Cotton Plants Infected by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum

The vascular colonization of cotton plants by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum was determined by examining growth of the fungus from free-hand cross sections taken from 0 to six days after inoculation at various distances above the points of root inoculation. Fungal spread in both longitudinal and lateral directions in the susceptible cultivar Rowden was evident four days after inoculation, whereas fungal spread in the resistant cultivar Seabrook Sea Island was restricted. The quantity of viable fungus in infected tissues was determined from macerated tissues plated on Czapek- Dox agar. The colony counts declined within six days after inoculation in resistant Seabrook Sea Island, but not in susceptible Rowden, implying that an inhibition of fungal growth in vascular tissues occurred in resistant Seabrook Sea Island. This inhibition could contribute to the restriction of fungal spread and thus be a factor in the resistance of cotton plants to F. oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum .     

The flagellin gene of Borrelia miyamotoi sp. nov. and its phylogenetic relationship among Borrelia species

Abstract We have cloned and sequenced the flagellin gene from Borrelia miyamotoi strain HT31 and compared it with previously published flagellin sequences. Sequence similarity analysis demonstrated that strain HT31 is phylogenetically distant from the three species of Lyme disease borreliae and is deeply branched into the relapsing fever borrelia cluster. The result was in full agreement with the classification of Borrelia strains using 16S rRNA sequences. This finding indicates that a phylogenetic analysis using flagellin gene sequences might be useful for classification of Borrelia strains.     

The characterization of the rumen bacterium Eadie's Oval,Magnoovum gen. nov. eadii sp. nov.

The rumen bacterium Eadie's Oval was examined by means of cell wall analysis and biochemical tests with a view to determine its taxonomic position.The purified cell walls contained components consistent with the organism being a Gram-negative bacterium, and despite its large size no abnormal cell wall constituents were found. The biochemical tests indicate that Eadie's Oval is not a member of a previously described family. The name Magnoovum gen. nov. eadii sp. nov. is proposed.Abbreviations Used EO Eadie's Oval - ARF autoclaved rumen fluid (supernatant after centrifuging for 5 min at 1000 g) - GC ratio of Guanine and cytosine to Adenine and Thymine in DNA     

The haemosporidian parasites of bats with description of Sprattiella alecto gen. nov., sp. nov

Four species of Haemoproteidae were found in Pteropus alecto Temminck, 1837 in Queensland, Australia: i) Johnsprentia copemani, Landau et al., 2012; ii) Sprattiella alecto gen. nov., sp. nov., characterised by schizonts in the renal vessels; iii) Hepatocystis levinei, Landau et al., 1985, originally described from Pteropus poliocephalus Temminck, 1825 and, experimentally from Culicoides nubeculosus and found in this new host and for which features of the hepatic schizonts are reported; iv) gametocytes of Hepatocystis sp. which are illustrated but cannot be assigned to a known species. A tentative interpretation of phylogenetic characters of haemosporidians of bats is provided from the morphology of the gametocytes and localisation of the tissue stages with respect to recent data on the phylogeny of bats.     

Pigment Diverse Mutants of Pseudomonas sp.: Inhibition of Fungal Growth and Stimulation of Growth of Cicer arietinum

A Pseudomonas strain MRS16 inhibited growth of different pathogenic fungi (Aspergillus sp., Fusarium oxysporum, Pythium aphanidermatum and Rhizoctonia solani) in vitro. Larger inhibition zones were obtained on nutrient agar and King's B media compared to potato dextrose agar and pigment production media. Mutants altered in production of fluorescent pigment were derived by nitrosoguanidine mutagenesis. The pigment overproducer mutant MRS16M-1 was more inhibitory whereas nonproducer mutant MRS16M-5 was less inhibitory than parent strain on nutrient agar medium. Addition of iron (100 µM FeCl₃) in the medium decreased inhibition of fungal growth, suggesting the involvement of siderophores and other antifungal secondary metabolites. Seed bacterization of two cultivars of chickpea (Cicer arietinum cvs. H8618 and C235) differing in susceptibility to wilt caused initial root and shoot stunting at 5 d of growth followed by proliferation of secondary root growth at 10 d. Coinoculation of chickpea with Pseudomonas strain MRS16 or mutants and Rhizobium sp. Cicer strain Ca181 enhanced nodulation, nitrogen fixation and plant dry mass as compared to single inoculation with Rhizobium strain under sterile conditions.     

Fungal lycopene: The biotechnology of its production and prospects for its application in medicine

This article deals with the lycopene of mycelial fungi. It pays special attention to its physical and chemical properties, occurrence in nature, biological functions, and the biotechnology of lycopene production. Data are presented concerning the medically important properties of lycopene and the drug Mycolycopene prepared on its basis. Its prospective use in the therapy of prostate cancers is discussed.     

Margaretbarromyces dictyosporus gen. sp. nov.: a permineralized corticolous ascomycete from the Eocene of Vancouver Island, British Columbia

A single, permineralized ascoma resembling a pseudothecium assignable to the Pleosporales is described from the Eocene Appian Way fossil locality on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The ascoma is globose, ostiolate, and erumpent on a fragment of the bark from an unidentified seed plant. Basally arranged asci contain large, multicelled, obovate ascospores within a single cavity or locule enclosed by a two-layered pseudoparenchymatous tissue that ostensibly represents ascostroma. Given this interpretation of the specimen's morphological features, Margaretbarromyces dictyosporus gen. sp. nov. represents the first report of a corticolous pleosporalean ascoma in the fossil record.