Bacterial growth laws and their applications

Quantitative empirical relationships between cell composition and growth rate played an important role in the early days of microbiology. Gradually, the focus of the field began to shift from growth physiology to the ever more elaborate molecular mechanisms of regulation employed by the organisms. Advances in systems biology and biotechnology have renewed interest in the physiology of the cell as a whole. Furthermore, gene expression is known to be intimately coupled to the growth state of the cell. Here, we review recent efforts in characterizing such couplings, particularly the quantitative phenomenological approaches exploiting bacterial 'growth laws.' These approaches point toward underlying design principles that can guide the predictive manipulation of cell behavior in the absence of molecular details.     

Molecular biology in physiology

The aim of this symposium on molecular biology in physiology was to introduce molecular biology to physiologists who had relatively little exposure to the new developments in this field, so that they can become conversant on this topic and contribute to the advancement of physiology by incorporating molecular biological approaches as a part of their research arsenal. After the discussion of the basic concepts, terminology, and methodology used in molecular biology, it was shown how these basic principles have been applied to the study of the genes encoding two membrane proteins that have important transport functions (band 3 and ATPase). The second half of the symposium consisted of papers on the state-of-the-art developments in the application of molecular biology to the studies of the atrial natriuretic factor and renin genes, adenylate cyclase-coupled adrenergic receptors, acetylcholine receptors and sodium channel, and long-term and short-term memories. The ultimate goal is that these examples will provide an impetus for the opening of new frontiers of research in physiology by taking advantage of the tools developed from recent advances in molecular biology.     

Primate microbial endocrinology: An uncharted frontier

Gut microbial communities communicate bidirectionally with the brain through endocrine, immune, and neural signaling, influencing the physiology and behavior of hosts. The emerging field of microbial endocrinology offers innovative perspectives and methods to analyze host‐microbe relationships with relevance to primate ecology, evolution, and conservation. Herein we briefly summarize key findings from microbial endocrinology and explore how applications of a similar framework could inform our understanding of primate stress and reproductive physiology and behavior. We conclude with three guiding hypotheses to further investigate endocrine signaling between gut microbes and the host: (a) host‐microbe communication systems promote microbe‐mediated stability, in which the microbes are using endocrine signaling from the host to maintain a functioning habitat for their own fitness, (b) host‐microbe communication systems promote host‐mediated stability, in which the host uses the endocrine system to monitor microbial communities and alter these communities to maintain stability, or (c) host‐microbe systems are simply the product of coincidental cross‐talk between the host and microbes due to similar molecules from shared ancestry. Utilizing theory and methodology for studying relationships between the microbiome, hormones, and behavior of wild primates is an uncharted frontier with many promising insights when applied to primatology.     

Estimating the phylogeny and divergence times of primates using a supermatrix approach

Background  

The primates are among the most broadly studied mammalian orders, with the published literature containing extensive analyses of their behavior, physiology, genetics and ecology. The importance of this group in medical and biological research is well appreciated, and explains the numerous molecular phylogenies that have been proposed for most primate families and genera. Composite estimates for the entire order have been infrequently attempted, with the last phylogenetic reconstruction spanning the full range of primate evolutionary relationships having been conducted over a decade ago.     

Hans Ussing, Experiments and Models

The article describes work and impact of Hans H. Ussing, a founder of epithelial physiology. Emphasis is on Ussing's model of epithelial transport, which showed early how a complex function can arise from a few basic principles. The KJU-model was developed 1958 for the amphibian epidermis and later applied and adapted to many epithelia, but especially to those that express amiloride-sensitive sodium channels in their apical membrane. Some of the subsequent research dealing with such channels and their cellular environment is briefly reviewed. The ideas of Hans Ussing were and are an inspiration to many of us, who continue to work in the way Ussing has taught us.     

昆虫假死行为研究进展

假死是昆虫重要的防御行为,与生存策略密切相关.昆虫受到天敌或类似天敌的外部物理刺激时,足、触角等附肢收缩,强直静止,自发进入假死状态.近年来,昆虫假死行为相关的研究逐渐增多,进展明显,明确了多种昆虫假死的发生时间、发生频率、刺激方式和诱发因素等特征,涉及臭椿沟眶象Eucryptorrhynchus brandti、赤拟...     

The "sensational" power of movement in plants: A Darwinian system for studying the evolution of behavior

Darwin's research on botany and plant physiology was a landmark attempt to integrate plant movements into a biological perspective of behavior. Since antiquity, people have sought to explain plant movements via mechanical or physiological forces, and yet they also constructed analogies between plant and animal behavior. During the Renaissance and Enlightenment, thinkers began to see that physiochemical explanations of plant movements could equally apply to animal behavior and even human thought. Darwin saw his research on plant movements as a strategic front against those who argued that his theory of evolution could not account for the acquisition of new behavioral traits. He believed that his research explained how the different forms of plant movement evolved as modified habits of circumnutation, and he presented evidence that plants might have a brain-like organ, which could have acquired various types of plant sensitivity during evolution. Upon publication of The Power of Movement in Plants, his ideas were overwhelmingly rejected by plant physiologists. Subsequently, plant biologists came to view the work as an important contribution to plant physiology and biology, but its intended contribution to the field of evolution and behavior has been largely overlooked.     

Strides in the technology of systems physiology and the art of testing complex hypotheses

Scientific understanding in physics or physiology is based on models or theories devised to describe what is known, within the limits imposed by observation error. Carefully integrated models can be used for prediction, and the inferences assessed via further experiments designed to test the adequacy of the theory summarizing the state of knowledge. This is the systems approach, the basis of theoretical physiology; the models, like those of theoretical physics, should be firmly based on fundamental reproducible observations of a physical or chemical nature, held together with the principles of mathematics, logic, and the conservation of mass and energy. Modern computing power is such that comprehensive models can now be constructed and tested. For this approach data sets should include as many simultaneously obtained items of information of differing sorts as possible to reduce the degrees of freedom in fitting models to data. By taking advantage of large memories and rapid computation, modular construction techniques permit the formulation of multimodels covering more than a single hierarchical level, and thereby allow the investigator to understand the effects of controllers at the molecular level on overall cell or organism behavior. How does this influence the research and teaching practices of physiology? Because the computer also allows a new type of collaboration involving the networking of ideas, data bases, analytical techniques, and experiment designing, investigators in geographically distributed individual laboratories can plan, work, and analyze in concert. The prediction from this socioscientific model is therefore that networked computer-based modeling will serve to coalesce the ideas and observations of enlarging groups of investigators.     

克隆植物的水分生理整合及其生态效应

水分生理整合是克隆植物生理整合过程中非常重要的一部分,是克隆植物生长发育和生态适应过程中的重要机制之一。本文主要从理论上对克隆植物水分生理整合的存在性、方向性、整合的程度、范围及其与克隆植物的功能分工、表型可塑性和觅养行为、风险分摊等行为表现的关系进行了深入分析,并对迄今有关克隆植物水分整合的最新研究进展和研究方法进行了系统总结和评述。提出克隆植物的水分生理整合包括水平和垂直两个方向,而水力提降为垂直方向的水分生理整合提供了一个重要途径。认为在今后,应加强对克隆植物水分生理整合的精确定量化研究,同时,应运用生态学、生理学、生物化学及分子生物学等方法,综合深入地研究克隆植物水分整合的机理。     

Ecoimmunology and microbial ecology: Contributions to avian behavior,physiology, and life history

Bacteria have had a fundamental impact on vertebrate evolution not only by affecting the evolution of the immune system, but also generating complex interactions with behavior and physiology. Advances in molecular techniques have started to reveal the intricate ways in which bacteria and vertebrates have coevolved. Here, we focus on birds as an example system for understanding the fundamental impact bacteria have had on the evolution of avian immune defenses, behavior, physiology, reproduction and life histories. The avian egg has multiple characteristics that have evolved to enable effective defense against pathogenic attack. Microbial risk of pathogenic infection is hypothesized to vary with life stage, with early life risk being maximal at either hatching or fledging. For adult birds, microbial infection risk is also proposed to vary with habitat and life stage, with molt inducing a period of increased vulnerability. Bacteria not only play an important role in shaping the immune system as well as trade-offs with other physiological systems, but also for determining digestive efficiency and nutrient uptake. The relevance of avian microbiomes for avian ecology, physiology and behavior is highly topical and will likely impact on our understanding of avian welfare, conservation, captive breeding as well as for our understanding of the nature of host-microbe coevolution.     

How Many Endobains Are There?

Oxidative metabolism is very active in brain, where large amounts of chemical energy as ATP molecules are consumed, mostly required to maintain cellular Na+/K+ gradients through the participation of the sodium pump (Na+,K+-ATPase), whose activity is selectively and potently inhibited by the alkaloid ouabain. Na+/K+ gradients are involved in nerve impulse propagation, in neurotransmitter release and cation homeostasis in the nervous system. Likewise, enzyme activity modulation is crucial for maintaining normal blood pressure and cardiovascular contractility as well as renal sodium excretion. The present article reviews the progress in disclosing putative ouabain-like substances, examines their denomination according to different research teams, tissue or biological fluid sources, extraction and purification, assays, biological properties and chemical and biophysical features. When data is available, comparison with ouabain itself is mentioned. Likewise, their potential action in normal physiology as well as in experimental and human pathology is summarized.     

Social context, stress, and plasticity of aging

Positive social contact is an important factor in healthy aging, but our understanding of how social interactions influence senescence is incomplete. As life expectancy continues to increase because of reduced death rates among elderly, the beneficial role of social relationships is emerging as a cross-cutting theme in research on aging and healthspan. There is a need to improve knowledge on how behavior shapes, and is shaped by, the social environment, as well as needs to identify and study biological mechanisms that can translate differences in the social aspects of behavioral efforts, relationships, and stress reactivity (the general physiological and behavioral response-pattern to harmful, dangerous or unpleasant situations) into variation in aging. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) provide a genetic model in sociobiology, behavioral neuroscience, and gerontology that is uniquely sensitive to social exchange. Different behavioral contact between these social insects can shorten or extend lifespan more than 10-fold, and some aspects of their senescence are reversed by social cues that trigger aged individuals to express youthful repertoires of behavior. Here, I summarize how variation in social interactions contributes to this plasticity of aging and explain how beneficial and detrimental roles of social relationships can be traced from environmental and biological effects on honey bee physiology and behavior, to the expression of recovery-related plasticity, stress reactivity, and survival during old age. This system provides intriguing opportunities for research on aging.     

Protein folding and unfolding simulations: a new challenge for data mining

One of the unsolved paradigms in molecular biology is the protein folding problem. In recent years, with the identification of several diseases as protein folding disorders and with the explosion of genome information and the need for efficient ways to predict protein structure, protein folding became a central issue in molecular sciences research. Using molecular dynamics unfolding simulations of an amyloidogenic protein--transthyretin--as an example, we put forward a series of ideas on how simulations of this type may be used to infer rules and unfolding behavior in amyloidogenic proteins, and to extrapolate rules for protein folding in different structural classes of proteins. These, in turn, could help in the development of protein structure prediction methods. The need to analyse different proteins and to run multiple simulations creates a huge amount of data which has to be stored, managed, analyzed and shared (database and Grid technology; data mining). Once the data is captured, the next challenge is to find meaningful patterns (associations, correlations, clusters, rules, relationships) among molecular properties, or their relative importance at different stages of the folding or unfolding processes. This clearly puts new and interesting challenges to the bioinformatics community.     

Taking physiology to the field: using physiological approaches to answer questions about animals in their environments

Both technological and conceptual advances continue to enhance our ability to evaluate physiological mechanisms in free-living animals. Although complex and uncontrolled natural environments may challenge our ability to define causal mechanistic relationships, they provide opportunities not available in more conventional laboratory settings. Among these opportunities are the ability to observe the interplay between physiology and behavior, the potential inspiration to physiological studies from novel observations in the field, and the ability to evaluate the extent to which particular physiological systems are challenged under natural conditions. As we accumulate information about physiological function in the field, we are often forced to reconsider established paradigms: hibernating bears may contract their muscles to maintain strength and tone, testosterone levels in male stonechats maintaining territories in winter are exceptionally low, wintering emperor penguins may risk overheating, and large desert mammals may eschew brain-cooling mechanisms. Measuring and quantifying the organismal response to a changing environment provides a link between mechanistic physiology and behavior, ecology, and evolution and gives us new tools to understand population, community, and ecosystem-level processes.     

Effects of environmental enrichment on reproduction

Although there have been few demonstrations of a direct empirical relationship between environmental enrichment and reproductive success in captive animals, indirect and anecdotal evidence indicates the importance of physical and temporal complexity for reproduction. We discuss three major mechanisms through which environmental enrichment that specifically increases the complexity of an animal's surroundings may influence reproductive physiology and behavior: developmental processes, modulation of stress and arousal, and modification of social interactions. In complex environments developing animals learn that performing active behavior produces appropriate functional outcomes. Learning to control their environment influences their ability to adapt to novel situations, which may profoundly influence their reproductive behavior as adults in breeding situations. Chronic stress may compromise reproductive physiology and behavior; enrichment reduces stress by providing increased opportunity for behavioral coping responses. However, some degree of acute stress may be beneficial for reproduction by maintaining an animal's level of responsiveness to socio-sexual stimuli necessary for sexual arousal and reproductive activation. Finally, environmental enrichment may influence reproductive success by stabilizing social groups, reducing aggression and increasing affiliative and play behaviors. It is concluded that multi-variate multi-institutional behavioral research in zoos will play an increasingly important role in the successful captive propagation of many species by closely examining relationships between environmental variables and reproductive potential of individual animals. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

昆虫嗅觉结合蛋白研究进展

嗅觉结合蛋白是嗅觉系统的第一个参与者,主要表达在嗅觉外周系统淋巴液中,负责识别、结合和转运气味和信息素分子到达嗅觉受体.近些年,随着各种生物新技术的应用,大量昆虫嗅觉结合蛋白被鉴定出来,其各种不同功能得到揭示.本文对近年来嗅觉结合蛋白的分子特征、蛋白结构、功能和应用等方面的研究进展进行总结和综述.总的来说,嗅觉结合蛋白...     

Toward a synthetic understanding of the role of phenology in ecology and evolution

Phenology affects nearly all aspects of ecology and evolution. Virtually all biological phenomena—from individual physiology to interspecific relationships to global nutrient fluxes—have annual cycles and are influenced by the timing of abiotic events. Recent years have seen a surge of interest in this topic, as an increasing number of studies document phenological responses to climate change. Much recent research has addressed the genetic controls on phenology, modelling techniques and ecosystem-level and evolutionary consequences of phenological change. To date, however, these efforts have tended to proceed independently. Here, we bring together some of these disparate lines of inquiry to clarify vocabulary, facilitate comparisons among habitat types and promote the integration of ideas and methodologies across different disciplines and scales. We discuss the relationship between phenology and life history, the distinction between organismal- and population-level perspectives on phenology and the influence of phenology on evolutionary processes, communities and ecosystems. Future work should focus on linking ecological and physiological aspects of phenology, understanding the demographic effects of phenological change and explicitly accounting for seasonality and phenology in forecasts of ecological and evolutionary responses to climate change.