Computational Model of the Insect Pheromone Transduction Cascade

A biophysical model of receptor potential generation in the male moth olfactory receptor neuron is presented. It takes into account all pre-effector processes—the translocation of pheromone molecules from air to sensillum lymph, their deactivation and interaction with the receptors, and the G-protein and effector enzyme activation—and focuses on the main post-effector processes. These processes involve the production and degradation of second messengers (IP₃ and DAG), the opening and closing of a series of ionic channels (IP₃-gated Ca²⁺ channel, DAG-gated cationic channel, Ca²⁺-gated Cl⁻ channel, and Ca²⁺- and voltage-gated K⁺ channel), and Ca²⁺ extrusion mechanisms. The whole network is regulated by modulators (protein kinase C and Ca²⁺-calmodulin) that exert feedback inhibition on the effector and channels. The evolution in time of these linked chemical species and currents and the resulting membrane potentials in response to single pulse stimulation of various intensities were simulated. The unknown parameter values were fitted by comparison to the amplitude and temporal characteristics (rising and falling times) of the experimentally measured receptor potential at various pheromone doses. The model obtained captures the main features of the dose–response curves: the wide dynamic range of six decades with the same amplitudes as the experimental data, the short rising time, and the long falling time. It also reproduces the second messenger kinetics. It suggests that the two main types of depolarizing ionic channels play different roles at low and high pheromone concentrations; the DAG-gated cationic channel plays the major role for depolarization at low concentrations, and the Ca²⁺-gated Cl⁻ channel plays the major role for depolarization at middle and high concentrations. Several testable predictions are proposed, and future developments are discussed.     

Modeling the Evolution of Insect Phenology

Climate change is likely to disrupt the timing of developmental events (phenology) in insect populations in which development time is largely determined by temperature. Shifting phenology puts insects at risk of being exposed to seasonal weather extremes during sensitive life stages and losing synchrony with biotic resources. Additionally, warming may result in loss of developmental synchronization within a population making it difficult to find mates or mount mass attacks against well-defended resources at low population densities. It is unknown whether genetic evolution of development time can occur rapidly enough to moderate these effects. We present a novel approach to modeling the evolution of phenology by allowing the parameters of a phenology model to evolve in response to selection on emergence time and density. We use the Laplace method to find asymptotic approximations for the temporal variation in mean phenotype and phenotypic variance arising in the evolution model that are used to characterize invariant distributions of the model under periodic temperatures at leading order. At these steady distributions the mean phenotype allows for parents and offspring to be oviposited at the same time of year in consecutive years. Numerical simulations show that populations evolve to these steady distributions under periodic temperatures. We consider an example of how the evolution model predicts populations will evolve in response to warming temperatures and shifting resource phenology.     

Rapid Pathway Evolution Facilitated by Horizontal Gene Transfers across Prokaryotic Lineages

The evolutionary history of biological pathways is of general interest, especially in this post-genomic era, because it may provide clues for understanding how complex systems encoded on genomes have been organized. To explain how pathways can evolve de novo, some noteworthy models have been proposed. However, direct reconstruction of pathway evolutionary history both on a genomic scale and at the depth of the tree of life has suffered from artificial effects in estimating the gene content of ancestral species. Recently, we developed an algorithm that effectively reconstructs gene-content evolution without these artificial effects, and we applied it to this problem. The carefully reconstructed history, which was based on the metabolic pathways of 160 prokaryotic species, confirmed that pathways have grown beyond the random acquisition of individual genes. Pathway acquisition took place quickly, probably eliminating the difficulty in holding genes during the course of the pathway evolution. This rapid evolution was due to massive horizontal gene transfers as gene groups, some of which were possibly operon transfers, which would convey existing pathways but not be able to generate novel pathways. To this end, we analyzed how these pathways originally appeared and found that the original acquisition of pathways occurred more contemporaneously than expected across different phylogenetic clades. As a possible model to explain this observation, we propose that novel pathway evolution may be facilitated by bidirectional horizontal gene transfers in prokaryotic communities. Such a model would complement existing pathway evolution models.     

Respiratory Evolution Facilitated the Origin of Pterosaur Flight and Aerial Gigantism

Pterosaurs, enigmatic extinct Mesozoic reptiles, were the first vertebrates to achieve true flapping flight. Various lines of evidence provide strong support for highly efficient wing design, control, and flight capabilities. However, little is known of the pulmonary system that powered flight in pterosaurs. We investigated the structure and function of the pterosaurian breathing apparatus through a broad scale comparative study of respiratory structure and function in living and extinct archosaurs, using computer-assisted tomographic (CT) scanning of pterosaur and bird skeletal remains, cineradiographic (X-ray film) studies of the skeletal breathing pump in extant birds and alligators, and study of skeletal structure in historic fossil specimens. In this report we present various lines of skeletal evidence that indicate that pterosaurs had a highly effective flow-through respiratory system, capable of sustaining powered flight, predating the appearance of an analogous breathing system in birds by approximately seventy million years. Convergent evolution of gigantism in several Cretaceous pterosaur lineages was made possible through body density reduction by expansion of the pulmonary air sac system throughout the trunk and the distal limb girdle skeleton, highlighting the importance of respiratory adaptations in pterosaur evolution, and the dramatic effect of the release of physical constraints on morphological diversification and evolutionary radiation.     

Sex Steroids and the Differentiation of Avian Reproductive Behavior

Experiments in which avian embryos are treated with sex steroidsor steroid antagonists suggest that sexual differentiation ofreproductive behavior (and thus differentiation of the brainmechanisms for such behavior) is controlled by steroids producedby the embryonic gonads. In chickens and Japanese quail, maleshatched from eggs treated with estradiol or testosterone duringincubation are feminized (demasculinized); they fail to exhibitmasculine sexual behavior as adults, and no longer are behaviorallydistinguishable from females. Some evidence suggests that testosteronemay mimic the feminizing action of estradiol by being convertedto an estrogen in the embryonic brain. Genetic female quailexposed to an antiestrogen during embryonic development aremasculinized; they exhibit an increased ability to display themasculine copulatory pattern. Thus the behavior of these speciesis feminized by embryonic exposure to sex steroids, the anhormonal(neutral) sex for behavioral differentiation appears to be themale, and females appear to result from estrogen produced bythe embryonic ovaries. In contrast, sex steroid treatment ofmammals early in development masculinizes behavior, the femaleis the neutral sex, and males result from fetal androgen secretion.These opposite patterns of psychosexual differentiation in birdsand mammals are correlated with a major difference between theavian and mammalian sex-determining mechanism. Implicationsfor other vertebrates are discussed.     

线虫的性别分化和决定

线虫（Caeborhabditis elegans)是十分重要的模式生物。在遗传学,发育生物学以及神经生物学中有着广泛的应用。就线虫性别分化和性别决定相关基因的特性和功能进行了详细介绍,并在此基础上初步概括了其性别决定的分子机制。     

Trends in the Evolution of Insect Parasitism by Nematodes as Inferred from Fossil Evidence

Fossil evidence can reveal a wealth of information regarding entomogenous nematodes. Amber is an excellent medium for the preservation of such fossils because it protects delicate organisms like nematodes, often along with their insect hosts. Such fossils establish a baseline for the appearance and continuation of parasite lineages as well as parasite-host associations. Thus far, fossil records of insect parasites have been discovered in the following nematode groups: terrestrial and aquatic Mermithidae, Tetradonematidae, Iotonchidae, Diplogasteridae, Allantonematidae, Sphaerulariidae, and Rhabditidae. Records date from 15 to 130 million years, demonstrating that these associations have existed for a considerable length of time.     

Role of Phytohormones in Sex Differentiation in Plants

The role of phytohormones in sex expression in plants is briefly surveyed. The interaction of hereditary and environmental factors in sex expression is considered. A major role of gibberellins and cytokinins in the regulation of sex expression in dioecious and monoecious flowering plants and in some muscoids is demonstrated. The evidence for the effect of other phytohormones and physiologically active compounds on sex expression in plants is examined.     

Predicting the Evolution of Sex on Complex Fitness Landscapes

Most population genetic theories on the evolution of sex or recombination are based on fairly restrictive assumptions about the nature of the underlying fitness landscapes. Here we use computer simulations to study the evolution of sex on fitness landscapes with different degrees of complexity and epistasis. We evaluate predictors of the evolution of sex, which are derived from the conditions established in the population genetic literature for the evolution of sex on simpler fitness landscapes. These predictors are based on quantities such as the variance of Hamming distance, mean fitness, additive genetic variance, and epistasis. We show that for complex fitness landscapes all the predictors generally perform poorly. Interestingly, while the simplest predictor, ΔVar_HD, also suffers from a lack of accuracy, it turns out to be the most robust across different types of fitness landscapes. ΔVar_HD is based on the change in Hamming distance variance induced by recombination and thus does not require individual fitness measurements. The presence of loci that are not under selection can, however, severely diminish predictor accuracy. Our study thus highlights the difficulty of establishing reliable criteria for the evolution of sex on complex fitness landscapes and illustrates the challenge for both theoretical and experimental research on the origin and maintenance of sexual reproduction.     

高等植物性别分化研究进展①

高等植物性别分化研究主要包括三个方面：性别分化特异大分子标记物的鉴定（分化程序）;诱导信号（如植物激素）的分析和性决定基因的分离与分析。近年来,植物性别分化研究取得了较大进展,本文主要介绍这一研究在分化程序、诱导信号和性决定基因等方面的研究进展。     

番木瓜性别分化研究进展(综述)

番木瓜性别分化是植物发育生物学的研究热点之一。本文从形态学及细胞学、遗传及基因组、性别分化调控等方面对番木瓜性别分化研究概况进行综述及展望。     

Facilitated synthesis of inulin esters by transesterification

Inulin, the polydisperse polyfructose, extracted from chicory, has been modified via transesterification, using fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). The grafting of an alkyl chain onto the inulin backbone under different conditions for the development of potential tensio-active derivatives is described. The modification of the biopolymer was performed in polar organic solvents, such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP). Depending on the type of solvent, different catalytic systems, such as DMSO-Na+, NaH, and NaOMe, were used and compared in reaction efficiency and reproducibility. Therefore the synthesized derivatives were characterized by 1H- and 13C NMR. The methods using NaH had a mean reaction efficiency of 80%, whereas the one using NaOMe showed a slight decrease in reaction efficiency to 75%. However, the method using NaOMe in NMP proved to be the preferred way to graft the inulin backbone with FAME on a bigger scale. The methods using DMSO as a solvent were not attractive since the end products had a specific bad smell.