桔梗科的地理分布:关于分布中心问题

对桔梗科44个属的分布作了分析,发现属的3个频度分布中心：东亚区(13个属),开普区(10个),地中海区(14个)。东亚区有12个属集中分布于中国西南部(云南东部和北部、四川西南部和贵州西南部);在地中海区属的分布相对均匀,但巴尔干半岛比较集中,有9个属。因此中国西南部是桔梗科属的最集中分布的中心。对桔梗科作了尝试性的划分,将该科分为6个类群,7个亚类群。东亚是类群和亚类群最集中分布的地区,因此可以称为类型的多样性中心。本文选择Polemoniaceae为外类群,把Cyphiaceae和Lobeliaceae作为参考类群,并考虑一般承认的进化原则,据此分析了26个性状的演化趋势,进而计算出每一个属的性状原始指数,并据此确定各属的原始性和进化性。最原始的属和大部分比较原始的属分布在东亚,因而可以认为东亚,特别是中国西南部,是桔梗科的原始类型中心。这个地区也就是康滇古陆的所在地,地史上一直稳定,为桔梗科原始类群的分化提供了历史地理背景,这里就是原始类群分化、发展的地区,推测桔梗科起源于白垩纪,但具体的起源地难于判断。     

THE FIDELITY OF THE FOSSIL RECORD: THE IMPROBABILITY OF PRESERVATION

Abstract:  The fidelity of the fossil record reflects how accurately it preserves the history of life. Since Darwin's time any mismatch between our theories and the fossil record has been attributed to the imperfections of the record. For over a century scarcity of gradual evolutionary trends was explained in this way until the punctuated equilibrium model was proposed. A null hypothesis that all morphological patterns in the fossil record are unbiased random walks can be rejected because it predicts far more apparent trends than exist. Current best estimates suggest that trends occur in at most 5% of characters. When an organism dies either it becomes fossilized or it doesn't. To be confident a species has not been preserved the probability against preservation must be significantly larger than the total number of individuals of that species that ever existed. For skeletized species preservation was the norm not the exception. Nevertheless, fossils must then avoid subsequent destruction and be discovered to be useful.     

THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE WATER-SOLUBLE INORGANIC ORTHOPHOSPHATE IONS WITHIN THE CELL: ACCUMULATION IN THE NUCLEUS : Electron Probe Microanalysis

Lead acetate treatment of unfixed cells immobilizes the intracellular water-soluble, inorganic orthophosphate ions as microcrystalline lead hydroxyapatite precipitates (see reference 1). These precipitates have been analyzed with the electron microprobe. A much higher concentration of phosphorus has been found in the nucleoli of maize root tip cells fixed in lead acetate-glutaraldehyde (organic phosphorus plus inorganic orthophosphate), as compared to the nucleoli of roots fixed in glutaraldehyde alone (organic phosphorus). The concentration of the inorganic orthophosphate pool in these nucleoli is three to five times as high as the concentration of the macromolecular organic phosphate. Since nearly all of the latter is in RNA, the concentration of inorganic phosphate in the nucleolus is calculated to be roughly 0.5–0.8 M. About 30%—and up to 50%—of the total cellular inorganic phosphate is accumulated in the nucleolus since the mean concentration per cell is about 10^-2 M. In the extranucleolar part of the nucleus the mean concentration was estimated by densitometry to be roughly six times less than in the nucleolus (⩽ 0.1 M), and appears more concentrated in the nucleoplasm than in the condensed chromatin. While there is no direct evidence for the concentration in the cytoplasm, it certainly must be much lower than the mean cellular level (i.e., < 10^-2 M) since the nucleus is about 10% of the total cell volume. The implications of this compartmentation in the intact cell are discussed in connection with (A) the availability of orthophosphate ions for the cytoplasm in those processes in which these ions affect the rate of enzymatic reactions, and (B) protein nucleic acid interactions within the nucleus and nucleolus.     

SHOOT ORGANIZATION IN THE FILICALES: THE PROMERISTEM

The classical pteridophyte apical cell theory of meristem organization is not flexible or realistic enough to encompass the variation encountered in a comprehensive anatomical survey of fern meristems. The meristems of 28 taxa of ferns (both eu- and leptosporangiate) were studied. This analysis has led to the formulation of the concept of a promeristem composed of two zones: the surface and subsurface initials. This concept is flexible and sufficient to describe the variation encountered in the ferns as a group. No differences in promeristem organization were observed in plants with various rhizome morphology (e.g., upright and radial; prostrate and dorsiventral). Marking experiments, performed on living surface cells of fern promeristems, correlate with anatomical observations of division planes in the promeristem and indicate that the central, surface initials are not quiescent. Feulgen determinations indicate that Nephrolepis stolons have no endomitotically polyploid cells in the promeristem. Additional work is needed before a generalization can be made concerning ploidy levels in a more typical fern apex. Ferns, in general, have a zoned promeristem which is parallel to the zonation described for higher vascular plants.