《新疆兀鹫》出版:中国科学院新疆生态与地理研究所马鸣研究员等编著

<正>近日,中国科学院新疆生态与地理研究所马鸣研究员等编著并由科学出版社出版了中国第一部关于鹫类的专著《新疆兀鹫》,全书共九章214页26.8万字。全球鹫类仅有23种,中国约有8种(占34.8%),是世界上鹫类资源最为丰富的国家之一。中国的鹫类主要分布在西部,如新疆、青海、西藏等。所有的鹫类均被列为国家Ⅰ级或     

红头美洲鹫和白头海雕的比较基因组学分析

红头美洲鹫(Cathartes aura)是美洲鹫科的一种食腐鸟类,已知腐肉中有许多致病细菌可致肉食动物或者杂食动物中毒甚至死亡,然而红头美洲鹫并不受此影响。为探究红头美洲鹫可能发生了哪些与食腐特性相关的适应性改变,我们结合红头美洲鹫和白头海雕(Haliaeetus leucocephalus)的基因组数据进行比较研究,对筛选的快速进化基因分别进行注释和富集分析。结果显示,多数快速进化基因被富集到与免疫、能量代谢和消化相关的通路上;此外,有5个基因被富集到与嗅觉相关的"嗅觉转导"通路上。本研究表明,红头美洲鹫体内与免疫、能量代谢和消化相关的基因可能发生了与食腐特性相适应的快速进化,说明其可能从多个层面已形成一套很强的防御系统以抵御病菌的危害;与嗅觉相关的5个基因的快速进化可能与其在觅食过程中快速探测到腐肉气味密切相关。     

甘肃临夏盆地中新世发现胡兀鹫类新种

正胡兀鹫类与秃鹫类被统称为旧大陆鹫,尽管它们在鹰形目里并不构成姐妹类群。丰富的化石证据显示旧大陆鹫广布于北美中新世到晚更新世的地层中;相比之下,早期鹫类化石在旧大陆的发现却寥寥无几。近期,中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所与美国得克萨斯大学古生物学家合作者报道了一件发现自中国临夏地区的新的胡兀鹫类化石新种,命名为长嘴中新近白兀鹫(Mioneophron longirostris),是胡     

猛禽濒临绝境

猛禽一般指鹫、鹰以及隼之类,目前全世界查明已有281种。除了瓜德罗普岛的长脚鹰已经绝迹之外,据估计至少有45种鹫类或鹰类濒临绝迹的危险。胡兀鹫是世界最大的猛禽之一,有“阿尔卑斯山巨鸟”之称,六十多年前在西欧的阿尔卑斯山地区消失了。这种鹫啄食羔羊的尸体,人们误认为它扑食活的羔羊,于是肆意猎杀这种猛禽。1913年,最后一只胡     

中国8种鹫类分类、分布、种群现状及其保护

分布在中国的鹫类有8种,分别为胡兀鹫、白背兀鹫、高山兀鹫、欧亚兀鹫、秃鹫、黑兀鹫、细嘴兀鹫和白兀鹫。这8种鹫类主要分布于我国西北、青藏高原及西南边境地区,其中秃鹫、胡兀鹫和高山兀鹫分布面积最广。种群数量方面高山兀鹫20 000只、胡兀鹫3 000~9 000只、秃鹫8 000只,其余种类数量在300只以下。国内关于鹫类的研究大部分处于空白状态,基础资料匮乏,种群现状不明。如今鹫类面临着诸多生存问题,迫切需要开展研究和保护。     

大自然的“清道夫”

在非洲干旱而辽阔的稀树草原,在青藏高原茫茫无边的高原草甸,以及欧洲的高山峻岭之上,哪里有哺乳动物出没,哪里就有鹫类猛禽翱翔于天空。它们以腐肉尸体为食,减少了动物界以及动物和人类之间的鼠疫、炭疽病等传染病的传播,是大自然的＂清道夫＂。尸体是一种很难保证的食物来源,今天这里有,明天那里有,这就注定鹫类猛禽常常要＂长途跋涉＂去寻找食物。     

新书介绍——《新疆兀鹫》

<正>2017年2月,中国第一部关于鹫类的专著《新疆兀鹫》由北京科学出版社出版发行,该书由中国科学院新疆生态与地理研究所马鸣研究员等编著,采用B5版面,全书共九章214页,约26.8万字。全球共有鹫类23种,中国有8种,分别为胡兀鹫Gypaetus barbatus、白腰兀鹫(拟兀鹫)Gyps     

知识果味派

正说起从古到今活跃在各路小说中的奇幻生物,免不了要提到龙啊、凤凰啊这些。不过,光是它们显然满足不了好奇的哥迷们。最近,就有哥迷给火狐狸姐姐砸来了一连串问题,大部分都和奇幻生物有关。名气仅次于龙和凤凰的奇幻生物是谁?这个问题问得有水平。古往今来,故事圈里的作者们都为此争论过,有人说是雪人,有人说是独角兽,也有人说是狮鹫。现在,公认的第三名奇幻动物是狮鹫。它长有狮子的躯体与利爪、鹰的头和翅膀,因为狮子和鹰分别称雄于陆地和天空,所以狮鹫很自然地被认为是霸主型生物。许多畅销游戏中部有它的身影。     

怪鸟王鹫南美巡游

卡索是一只居住在南美森林的国王秃鹫(又名王鹫),瞧,就是旁边这个涂着橘色腮红,长相怪异的家伙。由于名字中带个王字,再加上个头在秃鹫家族中位列前三,卡索常常会萌生出一种高鹫一等的优越感,甚至把自己幻想成统治南美森林的国王。这不,最近一段时间,卡索的国王幻想症又发作了,它萌生出遨游南美森林、巡视统治国土的想法。瞧,高傲的国王,它出发了!     

大自然的“清道夫”

<正>在非洲干旱而辽阔的稀树草原,在青藏高原茫茫无边的高原草甸,以及欧洲的高山峻岭之上,哪里有哺乳动物出没,哪里就有鹫类猛禽翱翔于天空。它们以腐肉尸体为食,减少了动物界以及动物和人类之间的鼠疫、炭疽病等传染病的传播,是大自然的"清道夫"。尸体是一种很难保证的食物来源,今天这里有,明天那里有,这就注定鹫类猛禽常常要"长途跋涉"去寻找食物。     

Membranes,viruses, detergents,and endosomes

The fluid mosaic model for biological membranes was formulated 40 years ago. Ten years later endosomes were discovered as important prelysosomal organelles. At the outset of my research career, I was fortunate to witness both these turning points in biochemistry and cell biology from close up, and to participate in some of the studies. In this short essay, I will describe how this came about, and also try to provide some background as to the general starting situation in those not so distant pioneering years of membrane biology.     

Mathematical descriptions of biochemical networks: stability, stochasticity, evolution

In this paper, we review some fundamental aspects, as well as some new developments, in the emerging field of network biology. The focus of attention is placed on mathematical approaches to conceptual modeling of biomolecular networks with special emphasis on dynamic stability, stochasticity and evolution.     

Virus Entry, Assembly, Budding, and Membrane Rafts

As intracellular parasites, viruses rely heavily on the use of numerous cellular machineries for completion of their replication cycle. The recent discovery of the heterogeneous distribution of the various lipids within cell membranes has led to the proposal that sphingolipids and cholesterol tend to segregate in microdomains called membrane rafts. The involvement of membrane rafts in biosynthetic traffic, signal transduction, and endocytosis has suggested that viruses may also take advantage of rafts for completion of some steps of their replication cycle, such as entry into their cell host, assembly, and budding. In this review, we have attempted to delineate all the reliable data sustaining this hypothesis and to build some models of how rafts are used as platforms for assembly of some viruses. Indeed, if in many cases a formal proof of raft involvement in a virus replication cycle is still lacking, one can reasonably suggest that, owing to their ability to specifically attract some proteins, lipid microdomains provide a particular milieu suitable for increasing the efficiency of many protein-protein interactions which are crucial for virus infection and growth.     

Virus entry, assembly, budding, and membrane rafts.

As intracellular parasites, viruses rely heavily on the use of numerous cellular machineries for completion of their replication cycle. The recent discovery of the heterogeneous distribution of the various lipids within cell membranes has led to the proposal that sphingolipids and cholesterol tend to segregate in microdomains called membrane rafts. The involvement of membrane rafts in biosynthetic traffic, signal transduction, and endocytosis has suggested that viruses may also take advantage of rafts for completion of some steps of their replication cycle, such as entry into their cell host, assembly, and budding. In this review, we have attempted to delineate all the reliable data sustaining this hypothesis and to build some models of how rafts are used as platforms for assembly of some viruses. Indeed, if in many cases a formal proof of raft involvement in a virus replication cycle is still lacking, one can reasonably suggest that, owing to their ability to specifically attract some proteins, lipid microdomains provide a particular milieu suitable for increasing the efficiency of many protein-protein interactions which are crucial for virus infection and growth.     

Sodium,protons, and energy coupling in the methanogenic bacteria

In this review, I focus on the bioenergetics of the methanogenic bacteria, with particular attention directed to the roles of transmembrane electrochemical gradients of sodium and proton. In addition, the mechanism of coupling ATP synthesis to methanogenic electron transfer is addressed. Evidence is reviewed which suggests that the methanogens possess great diversity in their bioenergetic machinery. In particular, in some methanogens the primary ion which is translocated coupled to metabolic energy is the proton, while others appear to utilize sodium. In addition, ATP synthesis driven by methanogenic electron transfer is accomplished in some organisms by a chemiosmotic mechanism and is coupled by a more direct mechanism in others. A possible explanation for this diversity (which is consistent with the relatedness of these organisms to each other and to other members of the Archaebacteria as determined by molecular biological techniques) is discussed.     

Phagotherapy in terms of bacteriophage genetics: hopes, perspectives, safety, limitations

The appearance and spreading of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens is a consequence of the large-scale use of antibiotics in medicine. In view of this, claims for the phage therapy were renewed: in recent studies, the natural phages and their products neutralizing various proteins, as well as the bacterial products often controlled by defective prophages (bacteriocins) were applied for treatment of bacterial infections. Constructs obtained by gene engineering are increasingly used to change some bacteriophage: properties to expand the spectrum of their lytic activity and to eliminate therapeutic drawbacks of some natural phages. In this review, the problem of phage therapy is discussed in general with respect to bacteriophage properties, their genetics, structure, evolution, taking into account long-term experience of the author in the field of bacteriophage genetics. Note that the general concept of phage therapy should be developed to ensure long-term, efficient and harmless phage therapy.     

Synthesis, biological evaluation of 5-carbomethoxymethyl-7-hydroxy-2-pentylchromone, 5-carboethoxymethyl-4',7-dihydroxyflavone and their analogues

In this letter, we describe the first synthesis of two recently isolated flavones 5-carbomethoxymethyl-7-hydroxy-2-pentylchromone (3a), 5-carboethoxymethyl-4',7-dihydroxyflavone (3b) and their derivatives (3c-t), evaluated for their antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer activities. Most of the synthesized compounds exhibited antimicrobial activity against the tested microbial strains and some of these compounds were found to be more potent as compared to the standard drugs like neomycin and luteolin. Interestingly, some of these synthesized compounds also showed moderate antioxidant property.     

Mycological records from ISAM 9, Kevo,Finland

ISAM 9 (International Symposium of Arctic-Alpine Mycology) was held in August 2012?at the Kevo Lapland Research Station in Utsjoki in northernmost Finnish Lapland. In addition to Utsjoki, some excursions were made in Finnmark, the northernmost part of Norway. Kevo station lies in the subarctic zone characterized by mountain birch (Betula pubescens var. czerepanovii), but the fells reach the arctic tundra zone. Áilegas fells at Utsjoki village and at Nuvvus lie on acid ground as does Skalluvaara, and all are under influence of reindeer grazing. The Gistuskaidi fell is highest and is characterized by the presence of more basic rocks; the vegetation also reflects some amount of maritime influence. The places visited on the Norwegian side belong to the Nesseby commune at the sea shore and Tana commune on the shore of the Tana River and along the road to Båtsfjord where the tundra is maritime and mossy with calcareous spots. In all 123 taxa were found during the excursions, some of them not determined at species level. The reported fungal taxa belong to the Basidiomycota (115 taxa), Ascomycota (7 taxa), and Mycetozoa (1 taxon).     

甘肃东乡龙担的河狸(啮齿类,哺乳动物)化石——龙担哺乳动物群补充报道之一

报道了在甘肃省首次发现的河狸化石:安氏河狸(Castor anderssoni)。安氏河狸在甘肃东乡的发现,扩大了河狸化石在我国的分布范围,并进一步证明龙担地点的黄土的时代为早于2Ma的早更新世。对现生河狸生存环境的对比分析表明,东乡地区在早更新世时可能比现在更湿冷,河、湖广布,树木较多,与现在温带半干旱气候的黄土丘陵地区的气候和环境差别很大。这种差别很可能是青藏高原后期抬升的结果。