Consequences of variation in flowering time within and among individuals of Mertensia fusiformis (Boraginaceae), an early spring wildflower

Climate change is causing many plants to flower earlier in spring, exposing them to novel selection pressures, including-potentially-pollinator shortages. Over 2 years that contrasted in timing of flowering onset, we studied reproductive strategies, pollen limitation, and selection on flowering time in Mertensia fusiformis, a self-incompatible, spring-flowering perennial. Plants opened most of their flowers early in the flowering period, especially in 2007, the early year; but selection favored early-flowering individuals only in 2008. However, resource allocation to early vs. late seed production was flexible: In 2008, but not 2007, early flowers on a plant produced more and heavier seeds. Late flowers were capable of equal seed production if fertilization of early ovules was prevented, suggesting that late flowers serve a bet-hedging function. Evidence for pollen limitation was weak, although there was a tendency for early flowers to be pollen-limited in 2007 and for late flowers to be pollen-limited in 2008. Poor reproductive success in 2007 was likely attributable less to pollen limitation than to frost damage to flowers. We suggest that plasticity in floral longevity and resource allocation among flowers will make this species resilient to short-term pollinator deficits; whether this will help or hinder future adaptation is unclear.     

Complete Genome Sequence of an Avian-Origin H3N2 Canine Influenza Virus Isolated from Dogs in South Korea

An avian-origin Korean H3N2 canine influenza virus (CIV) strain, designated A/canine/Korea/01/2007 (H3N2), was isolated from nasal swabs of pet dogs exhibiting severe respiratory syndrome in 2007. In the present study, we report the first complete genome sequence containing 3' and 5' noncoding regions (NCRs) of H3N2 CIV, which will provide important insights into the molecular basis of pathogenesis, transmission, and evolution of CIV.     

Complete genome sequence of porcine kobuvirus strain WUH1

Porcine kobuvirus, an emerging virus, was first identified in Hungary in 2007. We report here the complete genome sequence of porcine kobuvirus strain WUH1 isolated from piglets with severe diarrhea, which will help toward understanding the molecular and evolutionary characteristics of the porcine kobuvirus.     

First Evidence of Simultaneous Circulation of Three Different Dengue Virus Serotypes in Africa

Gabon, in Central Africa, was affected for the first time in 2007 and then in 2010 by simultaneous outbreaks of chikungunya and Dengue serotype 2 (DENV-2) viruses. Through the national surveillance of dengue-like syndromes between 2007 and 2010, we observed continuous circulation of DENV-2 in a southward movement. This rapid spread of DENV-2 was associated with the emergence of DENV-1 in 2007 and DENV-3 in 2010. Interestingly, we detected six DENV-2 infected patients with hemorrhagic signs during the second outbreak in 2010. Although these cases do not meet all standard WHO criteria for severe Dengue with hemorrhage (formerly DHF), this is the first report of several dengue fever cases associated with hemorrhagic signs during a simultaneous circulation of different DENV serotypes in Africa. Together, these findings suggest that DENV is becoming more widely established on this continent and that DHF will likely become a serious public-health problem in the near future.     

Genome of a European fresh-vegetable food safety outbreak strain of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar weltevreden

The genome of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Weltevreden strain 2007-60-3289-1 was sequenced. The genome sequence of this fresh-vegetable isolate from Scandinavia will be useful for the elucidation of plant host factors in comparison to other serovars of S. enterica subsp. enterica.     

Inflectional paradigms have a base: evidence from s-Dissimilation in Southern German dialects

In many varieties of Southern German the contrast between /s/ and / / is neutralized to before /p t/ anywhere within a word (e.g. ‘mail’), but neutralization does not occur before inflectional suffixes (e.e. küss-t [kyst] ‘kiss (3 SG)’). It will be argued that the underapplication of neutralization before inflectional suffixes is an example of a Paradigm Uniformity effect: Neutralization is blocked from applying to the final /s/ of a stem so that it will retain a constant shape in a paradigm. Underapplication in examples like [kyst] follows from a requirement that the stem in a derived word be identical to the unaffixed base. By contrast, the German data will be shown to be problematic for the Optimal Paradigms model (McCarthy 2005), since this approach does not allow for a base in inflectional paradigms.     

Proteomics Data Collection - the 1st ProDaC workshop 26 April 2007 Ecole Normale Supérieur, Lyon, France

Proteomics Data Collection (ProDaC) is an EU funded "Coordination Action" within the 6(th) framework programme. It aims to simplify the publication, dissemination and utilization of proteomics data by establishing standards that will support broad data collection from the research community. The 1(st) ProDaC workshop 2007 (succeeding the kick-off meeting last year at the HUPO World Congress 2006) took place at the Ecole Normale Supérieur in Lyon, France. These workshops take place as regular meetings on a half-year basis. On Thursday April 26(th) 2007 the progress of the first six months of the project was presented by the leaders of each of the seven work packages.     

Fifteen years of Servitude et Grandeur to the application of a biophysical technique in medicine: The tale of AFMBioMed

AFMBioMed is the founding name under which international conferences and summer schools are organized around the application of atomic force microscopy in life sciences and nanomedicine. From its inception at the Atomic Energy Commission in Marcoule near 2004 to its creation in 2007 and to its 10th anniversary conference in Krakow, a brief narrative history of its birth and rise will demonstrate how and what such an organization brings to laboratories and the AFM community. With the current planning of the next AFMBioMed conference in Münster in 2019, it will be 15 years of commitment to these events.     

Programmed cell death in plants: distinguishing between different modes

Programmed cell death (PCD) in plants is a crucial componentof development and defence mechanisms. In animals, differenttypes of cell death (apoptosis, autophagy, and necrosis) havebeen distinguished morphologically and discussed in these morphologicalterms. PCD is largely used to describe the processes of apoptosisand autophagy (although some use PCD and apoptosis interchangeably)while necrosis is generally described as a chaotic and uncontrolledmode of death. In plants, the term PCD is widely used to describemost instances of death observed. At present, there is a vastarray of plant cell culture models and developmental systemsbeing studied by different research groups and it is clear fromwhat is described in this mass of literature that, as with animals,there does not appear to be just one type of PCD in plants.It is fundamentally important to be able to distinguish betweendifferent types of cell death for several reasons. For example,it is clear that, in cell culture systems, the window of timein which ‘PCD’ is studied by different groups varieshugely and this can have profound effects on the interpretationof data and complicates attempts to compare different researcher'sdata. In addition, different types of PCD will probably havedifferent regulators and modes of death. For this reason, inplant cell cultures an apoptotic-like PCD (AL-PCD) has beenidentified that is fairly rapid and results in a distinct corpsemorphology which is visible 4–6 h after release of cytochromec and other apoptogenic proteins. This type of morphology, distinctfrom autophagy and from necrosis, has also been observed inexamples of plant development. In this review, our model systemand how it is used to distinguish specifically between AL-PCDand necrosis will be discussed. The different types of PCD observedin plants will also be discussed and the importance of distinguishingbetween different forms of cell death will be highlighted. Key words: Apoptosis, apoptosis-like programmed cell death (AL-PCD), Arabidopsis, autophagy, mitochondria, necrosis, programmed cell death (PCD) Received 5 June 2007; Revised 13 September 2007 Accepted 20 September 2007     

International Symposium on Insect Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology：Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong Province, China, September 19-22, 2007

We are building on the success of the Sixth Chinese Insect Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Symposium, Beijing, held in 2005. The 2005 symposium saw many Chinese and international authorities share their expertise in a broad range of insect science, including analyses of insect genomes and proteomes, functional gene expression and regulation during development, insect immunity, insect neurobiology, insect-host interactions and insect chemical communication. The coming symposium, which will be held in Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong province, September 19-22, 2007, will offer material along similar lines.[第一段]     

Shared‐storage clusters

Clusters represent a collection of interconnected computers that collaborate on executing an application and present themselves as one unified computing resource. They are becoming an important segment in the computer industry. The two main flavors of cluster architectures are sharedstorage and sharednothing. This article presents host and I/O implementation details, and performance tradeoffs that need to be enforced due to sharing data in sharedstorage clusters. Sharing data requires the need for global concurrency and coherency protocols to maintain consistency of the database, and enforce data consistency in the local nodes buffers, respectively. Various sharedstorage architectures will be investigated, including the Virtual Shared and SharedIntermediate Memory models. This article also presents few selected sharedstorage clusters, including the DEC VAXCluster, IBM parallel Sysplex and Compaq/Tandem ServerNet.     

Maintenance of species boundaries despite rampant hybridization between three species of reef fishes (Hexagrammidae): implications for the role of selection

Hybridization and introgression are antagonistic to the process of speciation. If hybrids are viable and backcross, introgression will slow or prevent the evolution of reproductive isolation between populations. If species hybridize upon secondary contact, introgression will ultimately erode species boundaries. If hybridization is rampant and gene flow is high, the proportion of hybrids will approach values expected with random mating, and introgression will overcome species boundaries, homogenizing populations. Alternatively, if species are genetically distinct, the proportion of hybrids would be significantly less than expected with random mating, gene flow would be interrupted by selection against hybrids, and inviability or sterility of F ₁ hybrids or backcrosses would be expected. Here, we investigate a system with characteristics expected by both of these opposing scenarios. Hybridization occurs between three species of reef fishes in the genus Hexagrammos at unexpected high frequencies in a zone of distributional overlap. Backcrossed individuals are detected, indicating F ₁ hybrids are viable and capable of reproducing. Yet, these species are genetically distinct at multiple loci. To study this apparent paradox, we estimate the relative proportions of hybrids, patterns of symmetry, inviability, and cytonuclear disequilibria using one mitochondrial and two nuclear markers. We invoke selection against hybrids, at various life history stages, in the maintenance of species boundaries in this system.  © 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2007, 91 , 135–147.     

密云水库不同季节细菌群落多样性

为加强对密云水库水体状况的全面了解,对2006年11月到2007年11月不同季节水体中的微生物进行了研究.用流式细胞仪技术和LB固体培养基培养测定了水体中的细菌数目;利用PCR-DGGE技术对水体细菌的多样性和相似性进行分析.结果表明,细菌数目随季节变化有所不同,但利用流式细胞仪测定的每毫升水体细菌的数目基本上均为104数量级,而培养得到的细菌菌落数为102～103 CFU/ml,基本符合国家饮用水源的卫生标准.细菌的多样性指数也表现出随季节变化的规律,冬季(2006-11和2007-11)Shannon-Weaver多样性指数较低,为3.0左右;春季(2007-04)开始增大,至夏季(2007-07)时可高达3.3068;秋季(2007-09)又减小到3.1246.另外,密云水库细菌的优势类群有β-Proteobacteria、Actinobacteria、Cytophaga/Flexibacter/Bacteroides (CFB) 类群和Cyanobacteria. 这些资料有望为以后进一步从微生物角度评价水质提供参考.     

Simulation of biological evolution and the NFL theorems

William Dembski (No free lunch: why specified complexity cannot be purchased without intelligence, 2002) claimed that the NFL theorems from optimization theory render darwinian biological evolution impossible. Häggström (Biology and Philosophy 22:217–230, 2007) argued that the NFL theorems are not relevant for biological evolution at all, since the assumptions of the NFL theorems are not met. Although I agree with Häggström (Biology and Philosophy 22:217–230, 2007), in this article I argue that the NFL theorems should be interpreted as dealing with an extreme case within a much broader context. This broader context is in fact relevant for scientific research of certain evolutionary processes; not in the sense that the theorems can be used to draw conclusions about any intelligent design inference, but in the sense that it helps us to interpret computer simulations of evolutionary processes. As a result of this discussion, I will argue that from simulations, we do not learn much about how complexity arises in the universe. This position is in contrast with certain claims in the literature that I will discuss.     

New oxa-bridged macrocycles

In creating new aroma molecules, the fragrance chemist can make use of several tools: receptor or combinatorial research as well as lead structure optimization of existing chemicals or substances from the natural pool. Sometimes, it is also possible to discover new structures via another way: the careful analysis of existing products and their production processes. In analyzing the production process of 1-oxacyclohexadecan-2-one (6), we identified at least two new oxa-bridged macrocyclic molecules. In continuation, these results inspired us to synthesize and evaluate more representatives with similar structures. In this contribution, presented at the RSC/SCI conference 'flavours & fragrances 2007' in London, September 24-26, 2007, the synthesis and olfactory properties of several new oxa-bridged macrocycles will be introduced and discussed.     

Spatial and temporal changes in Lutzomyia longipalpis abundance,a Leishmania infantum vector in an urban area in northeastern Argentina

This study aimed to analyse changes in the spatial distribution of Lutzomyia longipalpis in Posadas, an urban area located in northeastern Argentina. Data were obtained during the summer of 2007 and 2009 through two entomological surveys of peridomiciles distributed around the city. The abundance distribution pattern for 2009 was computed and compared with the previous pattern obtained in 2007, when the first human visceral leishmaniasis cases were reported in the city. Vector abundance was also examined in relation to micro and macrohabitat characteristics. In 2007 and 2009, Lu. longipalpis was distributed among 41.5% and 31% of the households in the study area, respectively. In both years, the abundance rates at most of the trapping sites were below 30 Lu. longipalpis per trap per night; however, for areas exhibiting 30-60 Lu. longipalpis and more than 60 Lu. longipalpis, the areas increased in both size and number from 2007-2009. Lu. longipalpis was more abundant in areas with a higher tree and bush cover (a macrohabitat characteristic) and in peridomiciles with accumulated unused material (a microhabitat characteristic). These results will help to prioritise and focus control efforts by defining which peridomiciles display a potentially high abundance of Lu. longipalpis.     

Proline peptide isomerization and protein folding

The unfolding-refolding of proteins is a cooperative process and, as judged by equilibrium properties, occurs in one step involving the native,N, and the unfoldedU, conformational states. Kinetic studies have shown that the denatured protein exists as a mixture of slow-(U)_Sand fast-(U)_Frefolding forms produced by proline peptidecis-trans isomerization. Proline residues inU _Fare in the same configuration as in the native protein while they are in non-native configuration inU _S. For protein folding to occur quicklyU _Smust be converted intoU _F. The fact that the equilibrium and kinetic properties of are the same as those found for prolinecis-trans isomerization taken together with the absence of slow phase in the kinetics of refolding of a protein devoid of proline, support this view. However, the absence of a linear correlation between half-time of reactivation of denatured enzymes and their proline-contents, as well as the dissimilarities in the kinetic properties of in unfolding and refolding experiments are not consistent with the model. Conformational energy calculation and experimental results on refolding of proteins suggest that some proline residues are non-essential. They will not block protein folding even in wrong isomeric form. The native-like folded structure with incorrect proline isomers will serve as intermediate state(s) in which these prolines will more readily isomerize to the correct isomeric form. The picture becomes more complex when one considers the consequence ofcis-trans isomerism of non-proline residues on protein folding.     

Physical and biological changes to a lengthening stream gradient following a decade of rapid glacial recession

In mountains, environmental gradients are steep in both terrestrial and aquatic systems, and climate change is causing upward shifts of physical and biological features of these gradients. Glacial streams are an interesting system to evaluate such shifts both because streams have a linear nature (for simplicity of analysis), and because the stream habitat will at least temporarily lengthen as it follows receding glaciers upward. The Tschierva Glacier, Swiss Alps, receded 482 m upstream from 1997 to 2008. We tested the null hypothesis that the physical and biological stream gradient below this glacier maintained the same structure between these time periods, but simply shifted upward following the glacial source. We compared longitudinal patterns of water temperature and zoobenthic community structure in 1997 and 2007–2008 during three seasons (spring, summer, fall) along the uppermost ca. 5 stream km. Upward shifts were evident, including colonization of the newly exposed stream reaches by cold‐adapted taxa, and the appearance in 2007/2008 of four lower‐altitude species that were previously absent. Overall, however, results rejected the null hypothesis, instead revealing significant changes in gradient structures. These included a more steeply increasing temperature profile downstream of the glacier and increased amplitude of seasonal community turnover in 2007/2008 vs. 1997. Long‐term (1955–2007) flow records revealed increasing short‐term and seasonal hydrologic variability, which might have influenced the increased intra‐annual community variability. The steepening of the temperature gradient was likely caused by a warming lake‐outlet tributary upon which glacial influence was diminished between 1997 and 2007/2008. These results suggest that upward‐shifting gradients in glacial streams can involve complex interactions with other landscape elements and that local‐scale climate response can progress even more rapidly than the rate of glacial recession.     

Seasonal Changes in Thrips tabaci Population Structure in Two Cultivated Hosts

Thrips tabaci is a major pest of high-value vegetable crops and understanding its population genetics will advance our knowledge about its ecology and management. Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene sequence was used as a molecular marker to analyze T. tabaci populations from onion and cabbage fields in New York. Eight COI haplotypes were identified in 565 T. tabaci individuals collected from these fields. All T. tabaci were thelytokous and genetically similar to those originating from hosts representing seven plant families spanning five continents. The most dominant haplotype was NY-HT1, accounting for 92 and 88% of the total individuals collected from onion fields in mid-summer in 2005 and 2007, respectively, and 100 and 96% of the total in early fall in 2005 and 2007, respectively. In contrast, T. tabaci collected from cabbage fields showed a dynamic change in population structure from mid-summer to early fall. In mid-summer, haplotype NY-HT2 was highly abundant, accounting for 58 and 52% of the total in 2005 and 2007, respectively, but in early fall it decreased drastically to 15 and 7% of the total in 2005 and 2007, respectively. Haplotype NY-HT1 accounted for 12 and 46% of the total in cabbage fields in mid-summer of 2005 and 2007, respectively, but became the dominant haplotype in early fall accounting for 81 and 66% of the total in 2005 and 2007, respectively. Despite the relative proximity of onion and cabbage fields in the western New York landscape, T. tabaci populations differed seasonally within each cropping system. Differences may have been attributed to better establishment of certain genotypes on specific hosts or differing colonization patterns within these cropping systems. Future studies investigating temporal changes in T. tabaci populations on their major hosts in these ecosystems are needed to better understand host-plant utilization and implications for population management.