南极冰藻对南极极端环境的适应性研究进展

南极冰藻是生存在南极海水、海冰及冰川融水等环境中各类微藻的总称,是南极海冰-海水生态系统中重要的生态群体和主要的初级生产力来源。南极冰藻有特殊的适应机制来响应南极地区低温、季节性光照、强紫外辐射和高盐度等极端环境,其环境适应性机制的研究是各国科学家研究的热点。综述了南极冰藻的低温、光照和强紫外辐射适应性及其抗逆基因研究等方面的最新进展,以期从多方面阐述和揭示南极冰藻的极端环境适应机制,使人们能更清晰的了解南极微藻在整个地球化学循环过程中的作用。     

Hg2+对南极冰藻Chlorophyceae L-4生长和抗氧化系统的影响及藻体富集Hg2+的规律

南极冰藻Chlorophyceae L-4是南极生态系统重要的初级生产力和组成部分,其长期生长在极地环境中,有着特殊的生理机制。在生存环境和生长条件发生变化时,冰藻的膜脂系统和蛋白含量都会发生变化,而在受到重金属胁迫时,冰藻的超微结构也会发生明显变化。【目的】研究Chlorophyceae L-4在重金属离子Hg2+胁迫条件下的状态和Hg2+富集以及对其抗氧化系统的影响,为南极环境监测提供依据。【方法】绘制南极冰藻细胞在重金属离子Hg2+不同浓度胁迫条件下的生长曲线,观察其超微结构;测定丙二醛含量和SOD酶活性变化;ICP-MS法研究藻体富集Hg2+规律。【结果】Hg2+在低浓度时(≤100μg/L),细胞个数较正常条件明显偏少;在高浓度时(≥250μg/L),出现细胞死亡。丙二醛含量随Hg2+浓度升高而升高,SOD酶活性则先增强再减弱。藻体富集Hg2+在1 h达到峰值,而在Hg2+浓度持续升高时,富集量轻微降低。【结论】Hg2+离子对冰藻生长有抑制毒害作用;对Chlorophyceae L-4抗氧化系统有明显不利影响;L-4富集Hg2+在1 h内饱和,Hg2+过高时,富集量稍微降低。     

脯氨酸和可溶性糖在南极冰藻低温适应机制中的作用

对低温胁迫下两种南极冰藻胞内的脯氨酸和可溶性糖含量的变化进行分析研究,探讨两种冰藻对低温的适应性机制。测定不同培养温度和培养时间下两种南极绿藻细胞中的脯氨酸和可溶性糖含量,获得其在低温下随温度和胁迫时间变化的趋势,分析其产生变化的原因。结果显示,温度越低,塔胞藻Pyramidomonas sp.L-1胞内的脯氨酸和可溶性糖含量增加越明显。-5℃,培养48 h后,脯氨酸含量是初始值的6.5倍,可溶性糖含量增加60%。衣藻Chlamydomonas sp.L-4胞内脯氨酸的含量同样为温度越低,胞内脯氨酸的含量越高;但随时间变化趋势与塔胞藻Pyramidomonas sp.L-1相反,含量随温度作用时间的增加出现减少的趋势。-5℃,48 h后脯氨酸含量基本维持不变,可溶性糖含量增幅达90%。结果表明,脯氨酸和可溶性糖在南极冰藻的低温适应性机制中具有重要的作用,但在不同藻种中的作用机制不同。     

南极硅藻生物多样性及生态分布研究进展

南极硅藻在南极生态系统中起着至关重要的作用, 是南极食物网的基石, 其物种多样性、群落结构特征直接或间接影响南极生态系统的稳定性。根据近30 年来国内、外有关南极硅藻的多样性和生物地理学研究, 综述了海冰硅藻的种类组成和分布特点, 南极湖泊硅藻的物种构成特征及附生硅藻和共生硅藻多样性的研究进展, 为南极硅藻的生物多样性研究、分子生态学研究、生物地理学研究开发和利用提供参考依据。     

抗冻蛋白研究进展(英文)

很多越冬的生物会产生抗冻蛋白,这些抗冻蛋白能够吸附到冰晶的表面改变冰晶形态并抑制冰晶的生长.抗冻蛋白在很多生物体内都被发现,不同的抗冻蛋白结构差异非常大.目前的一些研究揭示了几种抗冻蛋白的结构,并提出了抗冻蛋白与冰晶的结合模型,但是还没有一种机制能解释所有抗冻蛋白的作用机理.抗冻蛋白能被广泛的应用到农业、水产业和低温储藏器官、组织和细胞,利用转基因技术提高植物的抗冻性具有重要应用价值.而抗冻蛋白基因的表达调控则有待进一步阐明.     

抗冻蛋白质——转移冷冻抗性的前景

大量的海洋栖息的动物和陆地的昆虫都能产生大分子的抗冻物质,以有助于它们生存在它们的不被保护的血液和血淋巴的体液的冰点之下的温度环境中。用这些抗冻物质结合和抑制冰晶生长的非浓度相关的方式。这样它们对一旦冰晶形成后的冰的融点就没有多大的影响了,所以研究者比较确切地将这类物质描述为热滞留蛋白质,因此这些蛋白质就成了检测抗冻能力的基础。     

海冰微生物Pseudoalteromonas sp. ANT319耐盐性初步研究

南极海冰微生物在适应极端环境的长期进化过程中,获得了特殊的生理生化特性和基因表达调控机制。为了更多的了解南极微生物的逆境适应机制,以隶属南极海冰微生物典型菌属Pseudoalteromonas的ANT319为研究对象,探讨了该菌株在3%~12%的盐度梯度下的抗盐生长情况、蛋白质含量变化、细胞膜透性、丙二醛含量变化和不同盐度对菌株细胞内超氧化物歧化酶(SOD)、过氧化氢酶(CAT)和过氧化物酶(POD)3种抗氧化酶活性的影响。结果表明,此菌株的最适生长盐度为9%,随着盐度的升高,细胞内蛋白质含量升高,膜透性逐渐增加,SOD和POD的酶活性呈现先升高后降低的变化趋势,在9%盐度下达到最高,CAT活性和MDA则基本上保持不变。可见,随着盐度的增加,细胞膜逐渐受到破坏,同时生物体对盐迫作出应激反应,产生较多蛋白来清除不良因素下产生的有害活性氧,包括生物体内抗氧化酶在内的蛋白含量及其活性的增加,研究结果初步揭示了海冰细菌的耐盐机制。     

昆虫抗冻蛋白的研究进展

抗冻蛋白是一类与冰晶有亲合力,能够与冰晶结合并抑制冰晶生长的蛋白或糖蛋白。自20世纪60年代以来,研究人员已经分别从鱼类、昆虫、植物、真菌和细菌中发现多种抗冻蛋白。其中已知鱼类抗冻蛋白有5种,也是研究最详细的。但是,近几年来发现昆虫抗冻蛋白活性普遍比较高,因此受到研究人员重视,研究取得了较快的发展。主要讨论昆虫抗冻蛋白的结构特点、抗冻活性、作用机制和应用,并分析目前的研究现状提出一些待解决的问题,以期望对昆虫抗冻蛋白的研究进行比较系统化的整理。     

昆虫抗冻蛋白: 规则结构适应功能

抗冻蛋白在环境温度低于体液熔点时能够结合到生物体内的冰核表面,通过限制冰核生长和抑制冰晶重结晶而保护有机体免受结冰引起的伤害。与其他生物抗冻蛋白比较,昆虫抗冻蛋白有很强的活性,结构上具有显著特征,如一级结构规律重复,超二级结构为β-螺旋,可与冰晶发生相互作用,具有TXT基序等。该文综述了近年来关于昆虫抗冻蛋白的结构以及分子生物学等方面研究的新进展,讨论了其结构与功能的关系。     

第一类鱼抗冻蛋白对冰晶生长界面层结构的影响

根据冰晶在水溶液中生长的基本热力学性质,应用多层界面模型,分别得到了冰晶在纯水及抗冻蛋白溶液中生长界面层的吉布斯自由能.由冰晶生长界面层的吉布斯自由能,分析了冰晶在三种不同第一类鱼抗冻蛋白分子溶液中,热平衡状态下生长界面层的微观平衡结构,发现冰晶在抗冻蛋白溶液中生长与其在纯水中生长相比,界面层结构有明显变化,结合抗冻蛋...     

海冰

人称“中国北冰洋”的渤海和黄海北部海域,是我国纬度最高的海域。每年冬季的寒冷时节．其沿岸海域、各港湾、锚地、岛屿周围和狭窄水道等处．均有不同程度的海冰生成,形成了蔚为壮观的海冰世界。     

冰下拉大网

拍呼伦湖捕鱼,有无比的感慨。明水捕捞自不必说,而冬季冰下捕鱼则更显大气,那是人与冰雪斗争的壮举,是劳动艺术的彰显。     

Reduced Pressure Ice Fog Technique for Controlled Ice Nucleation during Freeze-Drying

A method to achieve controlled ice nucleation during the freeze-drying process using an ice fog technique was demonstrated in an earlier report. However, the time required for nucleation was about 5 min, even though only one shelf was used, which resulted in Ostwald ripening (annealing) in some of the vials that nucleated earlier than the others. As a result, the ice structure was not optimally uniform in all the vials. The objective of the present study is to introduce a simple variation of the ice fog method whereby a reduced pressure in the chamber is utilized to allow more rapid and uniform freezing which is also potentially easier to scale up. Experiments were conducted on a lab scale freeze dryer with sucrose as model compound at different concentration, product load, and fill volume. Product resistance during primary drying was measured using manometric temperature measurement. Specific surface area of the freeze-dried cake was also determined. No difference was observed either in average product resistance or specific surface area for the different experimental conditions studied, indicating that with use of the reduced pressure ice fog technique, the solutions nucleated at very nearly the same temperature (−10°C). The striking feature of the “Reduced Pressure Ice Fog Technique” is the rapid ice nucleation (less than a minute) under conditions where the earlier procedure required about 5 min; hence, effects of variable Ostwald ripening were not an issue.     

Antarctic Sea Ice Biota

The sea ice surrounding Antarctica provides an extensive habitatfor organisms ranging in size from bacteria to marine birdsand mammals. Historically, most of the ecological work on theice biota has focused in the nearshore land-fast ice. Only inthe last decade have there been comparable studies in the deep-waterpack ice regions. These studies have indicated that there arefundamental differences in structural and physical characteristicsof fast and pack ice thatare a result of differing physicalregimes in nearshore and oceanic regions. Other physical processesact to create heterogeneity within the ice habitat that canrange from geographic and regional scales of patchiness to apronounced vertical gradient within ice floes. The conspicuouspatternsin the distribution of the ice biota can be explained largelyby these physical processes. Over 200 species have been reported living on, in, or in associationwith Antarctic sea ice.The ice biota includes bacteria, a varietyof algae, heterotrophic protozoans and small metazoans. Thediatom assemblages are the only taxonomic group that is knownwell enough to make comparisons among the various habitats.Studies by a number of workers suggest some specific diatomassemblages along with occurrence of species that are widelydistributedin both ice and plankton. Ice may also serve as a temporaryhabitat for species that also comprise planktonic communities,so that providing a "seed population" for ice edge planktonblooms may be an important role of the ice biota. Trophic interactionsamong organisms in ice suggest that the ice assemblage is atrue community with a welldeveloped microbial food web. Theice microbial community may be an important part of the Antarcticmarine food web because large consumers from the adjacent planktonicand benthic communities appear to feed on the ice biota.     

Ice sheets and nitrogen

Snow and ice play their most important role in the nitrogen cycle as a barrier to land–atmosphere and ocean–atmosphere exchanges that would otherwise occur. The inventory of nitrogen compounds in the polar ice sheets is approximately 260 Tg N, dominated by nitrate in the much larger Antarctic ice sheet. Ice cores help to inform us about the natural variability of the nitrogen cycle at global and regional scale, and about the extent of disturbance in recent decades. Nitrous oxide concentrations have risen about 20 per cent in the last 200 years and are now almost certainly higher than at any time in the last 800 000 years. Nitrate concentrations recorded in Greenland ice rose by a factor of 2–3, particularly between the 1950s and 1980s, reflecting a major change in NO_x emissions reaching the background atmosphere. Increases in ice cores drilled at lower latitudes can be used to validate or constrain regional emission inventories. Background ammonium concentrations in Greenland ice show no significant recent trend, although the record is very noisy, being dominated by spikes of input from biomass burning events. Neither nitrate nor ammonium shows significant recent trends in Antarctica, although their natural variations are of biogeochemical and atmospheric chemical interest. Finally, it has been found that photolysis of nitrate in the snowpack leads to significant re-emissions of NO_x that can strongly impact the regional atmosphere in snow-covered areas.     

Ice Nucleation Activity in Lichens

A newly discovered form of biological ice nucleus associated with lichens is described. Ice nucleation spectra of a variety of lichens from the southwestern United States were measured by the drop-freezing method. Several epilithic lichen samples of the genera Rhizoplaca, Xanthoparmelia, and Xanthoria had nuclei active at temperatures as warm as −2.3°C and had densities of 2.3 × 10⁶ to more than 1 × 10⁸ nuclei g⁻¹ at −5°C (2 to 4 orders of magnitude higher than any plants infected with ice nucleation-active bacteria). Most lichens tested had nucleation activity above −8°C. Lichen substrates (rocks, plants, and soil) showed negligible activity above −8°C. Ice nucleation-active bacteria were not isolated from the lichens, and activity was not destroyed by heat (70°C) or sonication, indicating that lichen-associated ice nuclei are nonbacterial in origin and differ chemically from previously described biological ice nuclei. An axenic culture of the lichen fungus Rhizoplaca chrysoleuca showed detectable ice nucleation activity at −1.9°C and an ice nucleation density of 4.5 × 10⁶ nuclei g⁻¹ at −5°C. It is hypothesized that these lichens, which are both frost tolerant and dependent on atmospheric moisture, derive benefit in the form of increased moisture deposition as a result of ice nucleation.