动物体内可自制胡萝卜素

动物体中需要保护视觉和皮肤健康、促进骨骼生长和维持其他重要生理机能的多种物质,胡萝卜素是构成这些物质的基础。常见的蔬菜胡萝卜内含有大量的β-胡萝卜素,它是让胡萝卜自身呈桔黄色的原因,也是构成维生素A的基础。     

动物的体液调节

调节动物体中内环境的稳定主要靠神经调节和体液调节。本文阐述了动物机体的体液调节过程。指出体液调节主要是通过内分泌腺释放激素,并与其它调节机制共同完成对机体生理机能的调节。重点介绍了下丘脑对垂体功能,下丘脑神经内分泌机能和APUD系统的调节。     

动物体内的血管网

循环系统对于维持动物正常生理活动具有重要作用。血管是循环系统的重要组成部分。适应不同生活环境和代谢特点 ,不同种类的动物 ,血管分布具有各自的规律和特点。然而 ,在某些不同类群的动物中 ,不难发现 ,分布于不同器官、部位的血管形成了类似的排布形式——血管网 ,利用简单的逆流交换原理 ,适应着不同的功能需求 ,实现了对动物生命活动的调节。1　气体交换的血管网　　水中的软体动物的鳃丝上以及真骨鱼类鳃丝的鳃小片上毛细血管很丰富 ,而每一个鳃丝或鳃小片上血流的方向与水流方向相反。因此通过逆流交换作用 ,单位时间内与鳃毛细血…     

细菌品种在农场动物体内的融合

新的研究显示．在动物肠道中存在的2个细菌品种可以融合成另一种单独的品种。这一情况可能开始于牲畜的驯化过程,因为该过程使这2种细菌在鸡、牛及其他动物体内相遇。细菌间的基因交换如此频繁。以至于很难为不同种类的细菌建立系谱,而我们对细菌自然群体的生态学知识尚处于初始阶段。虽然如此。空肠弯曲菌与大肠弯曲杆菌仍然被看作截然不同的细菌品种．而这2种细菌是引起世界范围内人类胃肠道炎症的最常见的致病菌。     

活体动物体内光学成像技术的研究进展

生物发光和荧光成像作为近年来新兴的活体动物体内光学成像技术,以其操作简便及直观性成为研究小动物活体成像的一种理想方法,在生命科学研究中得以不断发展。利用这种成像技术,可以直接实时观察标记的基因及细胞在活体动物体内的活动及反应。利用光学标记的转基因动物模型可以研究疾病的发生发展过程,进行药物研究及筛选等。本文综述了现有活体动物体内光学成像技术的原理、应用领域及发展前景,比较了生物发光与几种荧光技术的不同特点和应用。     

“动物的激素调节”的教学组织

<正>高等多细胞动物和人体在其生长、发育、代谢、遗传和变异等各种生命活动中,都是通过一定的调节机制使机体保持稳态,并作为一个统一的有机整体适应多变的环境。人和高等动物生命活动的调节包括神经调节、体液调节和免疫调节等。本文主要探讨"人和高等动物的激素调节"的教学组织。     

Nature：艾滋病基因疗法在动物体内效果显著

英国《自然》杂志刊登了来自美国加州理工学院等机构研究人员的最新研究成果“Antibody-based protection against HIV infection by vectored immunoprophylaxis”,他们探索出的一种艾滋病基因疗法在动物实验中取得了成效。实验证明感染大剂量艾滋病病毒的实验鼠也可受到保护。     

活体动物体内光学成像技术的研究进展及其应用

活体动物体内光学成像是利用基因改构进行内源性成像试剂或外源性成像试剂标记细胞、蛋白或DNA，从而非侵入性地报告小动物体内的特定生物学事件的技术。活体成像可以直观灵敏地监测基因的表达模式、标记和示踪细胞、探讨蛋白间的相互作用，因而这一技术被广泛地用于分析基因的表达模式、评价基因治疗效果、评估肿瘤的发生和转移、监测移植器官等。简要综述了现有活体动物体内光学成像技术的基本原理、技术进展和相关应用。     

高中生物学新课程标准教学研讨"动物生命活动的调节"教学构思

在“稳态与环境”模块中，动物生命活动的调节包括神经调节和激素调节。本文将从学习目标、教学策略和建议等方面，谈谈对本单元的教学构思。[第一段]     

Inside out: modern imaging techniques to reveal animal anatomy

Animal anatomy has traditionally relied on detailed dissections to produce anatomical illustrations, but modern imaging modalities, such as MRI and CT, now represent an enormous resource that allows for fast non-invasive visualizations of animal anatomy in living animals. These modalities also allow for creation of three-dimensional representations that can be of considerable value in the dissemination of anatomical studies. In this methodological review, we present our experiences using MRI, CT and μCT to create advanced representation of animal anatomy, including bones, inner organs and blood vessels in a variety of animals, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and spiders. The images have a similar quality to most traditional anatomical drawings and are presented together with interactive movies of the anatomical structures, where the object can be viewed from different angles. Given that clinical scanners found in the majority of larger hospitals are fully suitable for these purposes, we encourage biologists to take advantage of these imaging techniques in creation of three-dimensional graphical representations of internal structures.     

pH and calcium regulate the water permeability of aquaporin 0

Aquaporins increase the water permeability in many cell types across many species. We investigated the effects of external pH and Ca(2+) on water permeability of Xenopus oocytes injected with aquaporin cRNA by measuring the rate of swelling in hypotonic solutions. Lowering pH to 6.5 increased the water permeability of aquaporin (AQP0) 3.4 +/- 0.4-fold. Diethylpyrocarbonate pretreatment increased water permeability 4.2 +/- 0.5-fold and abolished pH sensitivity, suggesting that the pH regulation is mediated by an external histidine. Lowering Ca(2+) increased water permeability 4.1 +/- 0. 4-fold. The effects of Ca(2+) and pH each required the presence of histidine 40, indicating a critical role of this amino acid in facilitating the modulation of water permeability. Clamping intracellular Ca(2+) at high or low values abolished sensitivity to external Ca(2+), suggesting that Ca(2+) acts at an internal site. Three different calmodulin inhibitors each increased AQP0 water permeability, suggesting that Ca(2+) may act through calmodulin. None of the above altered the water permeability induced by AQP1 or AQP4. Because the greatest change in AQP0 water permeability is in the normal pH range found in the lens (7.2-6.5), this paper provides evidence for regulation of an aquaporin by pH under physiological conditions.     

The water impermeability of discontinuous animal integuments]

Discontinuous integuments formed by macroscopic discrete elements are characters mainly of land animals, both vertebrates and invertebrates. Waterproof properties of these integuments manifest themselves in capture and preservation of some air in their layers during submergence. The functions of integument air layer are various in different groups of animals, viz. participation in respiration (invertebrates with integuments in the form of plastron), insulation (especially birds and mammals), regulation of pelage state in the water (mammals). The principal condition of watertightness is high density of integument elements forming a system of capillaries with variable cross-sections. The general physical principle underlying the watertightness of integuments consist in a effect of surface tension arresting the water penetration deep into the coats soon as meniscus of a liquid has attend the widening section of intraintegumental capillary. For the watertightness of plastron formed by a single hair layer considerable stiffness of the whole system and high values of capillary pressure are important. Multilayered pliable mammalian pelage is characterized by a rather low capillary pressure because its effect is supplemented by the pressure that arise in the pelage air layer as a result of its compression during submergence. In birds with their structurally complicated integuments and diverse locomotory adaptations a wide spectrum of variability of plumage watertightness is observed.     

Selection of stable RNA molecules that can regulate the channel-opening equilibrium of the membrane-bound gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor

The gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA(A)) receptor belongs to a superfamily of membrane-bound proteins that regulate signal transmission between cells in the nervous system. It is the target of convulsants such as picrotoxin and is mutated in some forms of epilepsy, a disease affecting approximately 50 million people worldwide. In picrotoxin inhibition and in one form of epilepsy, a decrease in the channel-opening equilibrium of a GABA(A) receptor is responsible for receptor dysfunction. Here we identify compounds that can regulate the channel-opening equilibrium of the GABA(A) receptor. Fluorinated RNA polymers containing a 40-nucleotide region with a randomized sequence were used to select those that can displace picrotoxin from the membrane-bound GABA(A) receptor in the rat forebrain. After 11 selection rounds, two classes of RNA molecules that bind to the GABA(A) receptor with nanomolar affinity were isolated and sequenced. Class I and class II molecules have different consensus sequences and different binding affinities for the receptor. A transient kinetic technique, the cell-flow method, was employed in combination with the whole-cell current-recording technique to determine the affinity of the selected RNA aptamers for the GABA(A) receptor. Class I molecules have a higher affinity for the closed-channel form than for the open-channel receptor form and inhibit the receptor; class II aptamers bind with equal or higher affinity to the open-channel form and alleviate picrotoxin inhibition.     

Quercus ilex facing water stress: a functional equilibrium hypothesis

A boundary line analysis of the scatterplot relating pre-dawn leaf water potential to pre-dawn minus minimum leaf water potential was applied to study the efficiency of the Mediterranean evergreen oak species to buffer the effects of variability in water resources. The results are discussed in term of stomatal regulation and changes in soil-to-leaf hydraulic conductance of water flow, both induced by changes in leaf water potential. For this purpose, we used data for leaf water potential measured in three stands of Quercus ilex across a soil water availability gradient in Southern France, and two others obtained in California and Arizona for Quercus turbinella and Portugal for Quercus coccifera. A classification of plant responses from mesic to xeric sites is proposed.     

Scaling phloem transport: water potential equilibrium and osmoregulatory flow

In this work, the common assumption that phloem sap is in water potential equilibrium with the surrounding apoplast was examined. With a dimensionless model of phloem translocation that scales with just two dimensionless parameters (R?and F?), a ‘map’ of phloem behaviour as a function of these parameters was produced, which shows that the water potential equilibrium assumption (R?F? >> 1) is valid for essentially all realistic values of the relevant scales. When in water potential equilibrium, a further parameter reduction is possible that limits model dependence to a single parameter (F?), which describes the ratio of the solution's osmotic strength to its axial pressure drop. Due to the locally autonomous nature of individual sieve element/companion cell complexes, it is argued that long‐distance integrative control is most efficient when F? is large (that is, when the pressure drop is relatively small), permitting the sieve tube to regulate solute loading in response to global changes in turgor. This mode of transport has been called ‘osmoregulatory flow.’ Limitations on the pressure drop within the transport phloem could require that sieve tubes be shorter than the long axis of the plant, and thus arranged in series and hydraulically isolated from one another.