Environmental filtering rather than dispersal limitation dominated plant community assembly in the Zoige Plateau

Identifying the mechanisms that underlie the assembly of plant communities is critical to the conservation of terrestrial biodiversity. However, it is seldom measured or quantified how much deterministic versus stochastic processes contribute to community assembly in alpine meadows. Here, we measured the decay in community similarity with spatial and environmental distance in the Zoige Plateau. Furthermore, we used redundancy analysis (RDA) to divide the variations in the relative abundance of plant families into four components to assess the effects of environmental and spatial. Species assemblage similarity liner declined with geographical distance (p < .001, R ² = .6388), and it decreased significantly with increasing distance of total phosphorus (TP), alkali‐hydrolyzable nitrogen (AN), available potassium (AK), nitrate nitrogen (NO₃ ⁺–N), and ammonia nitrogen (NH₄ ⁺–N). Environmental and spatial variables jointly explained a large proportion (55.2%) of the variation in the relative abundance of plant families. Environmental variables accounted for 13.1% of the total variation, whereas spatial variables accounted for 11.4%, perhaps due to the pronounced abiotic gradients in the alpine areas. Our study highlights the mechanism of plant community assembly in the alpine ecosystem, where environmental filtering plays a more important role than dispersal limitation. In addition, a reasonably controlled abundance of Compositae (the family with the highest niche breadth and large niche overlap value with Gramineae and Cyperaceae) was expected to maintain sustainable development in pastoral production. These results suggest that management measures should be developed with the goal of improving or maintaining suitable local environmental conditions.     

云南含笑花粉萌发研究

应用离体培养和人工授粉的方法对云南含笑花粉的萌发进行了研究。栽培和野生云南含笑花粉的萌发率有很大的差异,分别为20％和90％。首次报道了云南含笑的花粉粒在离体培养基上萌发2条花粉管的现象。云南含笑花粉在灰岩含笑花柱头上的萌发率和萌发时间与离体培养基上的相同,表明灰岩含笑的柱头对云南含笑的花粉没有排异现象。     

人类新基因WDR24的研究初报

WD40家族是一类结构保守、功能复杂的蛋白.目前很多研究显示该家族成员通过参与MAPK信号途径调控细胞内信号转导而影响细胞的基本生命活动.为了鉴定参与细胞生命活动的新基因,运用同源基因克隆法,通过PCR技术扩增获得一个新的人类基因WDR24, 其cDNA全长3 302 bp,2 373 bp长的开放阅读框编码由790个氨基酸残基组成的蛋白质.生物信息学分析表明,WDR24蛋白在进化上高度保守,与其他脊椎动物中的同源蛋白组成了一个功能未知的亚家族.蛋白序列分析显示其中有6个WD40重复序列和1个ERK的停泊位点D-domain.RT-PCR分析表明,该基因在所有被检测的人类胚胎组织中表达.     

Screening of binding proteins that interact with human Salvador 1 in a human fetal liver cDNA library by the yeast two-hybrid system

Salvador promotes both cell cycle exit and apoptosis through the modulation of both cyclin E and Drosophila inhibitor of apoptosis protein in Drosophila. However, the cellular function of human Salvador (hSav1) is rarely reported. To screen for novel binding proteins that interact with hSav1, the cDNA of hSav1 was cloned into a bait protein plasmid, and positive clones were screened from a human fetal liver cDNA library by the yeast two-hybrid system. hSav1 mRNA was expressed in yeast and there was no self-activation and toxicity in the yeast strain AH109. Twenty proteins were found to interact with hSav1, including HS1 (haematopoietic cell specific protein1)-associated protein X-1 (HAX-1); neural precursor cell expressed, developmentally down-regulated 9, pyruvate kinase, liver and RBC, cytochrome c oxidase subunit Vb, enoyl coenzyme A hydratase short chain 1, and NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) 1 beta subcomplex, demonstrating that the yeast two-hybrid system is an efficient method for investigating protein interactions. Among the identified proteins, there were many mitochondrial proteins, indicating that hSav1 may play a role in mitochondrial function. We also confirmed the interaction of HAX-1 and hSav1 in mammalian cells. This investigation provides functional clues for further exploration of potential apoptosis-related proteins in disease biotherapy.     

香蕉类甜蛋白基因MaTLP1的克隆与表达分析

在香蕉EST文库中,通过RACE技术克隆到1个香蕉类甜蛋白基因的全长序列。该序列最大开放阅读框942 bp,编码313个氨基酸。Blast分析发现,它与其他类甜蛋白相似度为56.10%,含有类甜蛋白（TLPs）特有的保守结构域,命名为MaTLP1。系统进化树表明,MaTLP1基因编码蛋白与海枣的亲缘关系较近,与香蕉的进化模式相似。组织特异性分析表明,MaTLP1在根、球茎、假茎中的表达量高,叶中较弱,花和果实中微量表达。实时荧光定量PCR分析显示,在抗病香蕉品种中,接种尖孢镰刀菌古巴专化型(Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.cubense,Foc)枯萎病菌后MaTLP1基因上调表达,在感病香蕉品种接菌2 d后MaTLP1基因受到抑制,虽然在接菌4 d 后上调表达,但是相对于抗病品种上调较小。研究表明,MaTLP1基因可能在香蕉抗枯萎病的过程中起作用。     

多肽配体技术在植物功能基因组学中的应用前景

人工智能配体或适配体(Aptamer)技术是近年来兴起的一项特异性极强的基因干扰技术。通过人工合成特异的智能配体结合靶基因的蛋白产物, 达到特异干扰靶基因的生物学功能, 这是人工智能配体技术的基本设想。文章综述了多肽配体(Peptide aptamer)技术在基因功能验证中的主要进展, 着重阐明它在植物基因功能验证和作物抗病毒育种中的应用前景, 并提出克服该技术主要风险对策。     

广东省蛇类新纪录——菱斑小头蛇

2007年6月23日,在广东省南昆山省级自然保护区采集到一条菱斑小头蛇(Oligodon catenata),为广东省蛇类新纪录。该新分布区的发现说明菱斑小头蛇在我国可能并非间断分布。     

秦岭雄性羚牛的发情行为与其社会状态的关系

2004年5月31日至8月31日在陕西省佛坪县国家级自然保护区,对羚牛秦岭亚种（Budorcas taxicolor bedfordi）的繁殖行为及雄牛的社会状态进行了研究。研究期间每天在比较容易见到羚牛的区域内沿固定路线寻找羚牛,在不惊扰羚牛正常活动的情况下,记录牛群大小、群内个体的性别、年龄、雄性的社会状态,即是单独活动还是在繁殖群中;社会状态的变动,即每只是进入还是离开繁殖群;羚牛群中个体之间的相互关系,包括入群的独牛与群内其它雄牛之间的行为、与群内雌牛之间的行为。同时用摄像机辅助记录羚牛在群内的行为,并根据图像资料对记录的数据进行校正。研究期间累计对277 头次雄性羚牛的繁殖行为进行了观察,记录到241次繁殖行为。虽然6月初至8月下旬都可以见到羚牛的繁殖活动,但80% 以上的繁殖行为发生在6月20日至7月10日期间,其中以6月21 ～ 30日间的繁殖活动最多（105 次）。繁殖季节中雄性羚牛有两种社会状态,即在繁殖群中和单独活动（即独牛）。研究期间累计的独牛比例占成年雄性的30. 32%,其中72. 62%的独牛出现在6月10 日至7 月10 日。6 月21 ～ 30 日间独牛比例最高,占成年雄性个体的50. 67%。雄牛进出繁殖群的现象比较常见,独牛的比例与繁殖行为正相关。繁殖高峰期后,单独活动的雄牛数量迅速减少。雄牛的社会状态会随着繁殖期的不同阶段发生改变,独牛在不同繁殖群之间移动寻求更多的交配机会。我们的研究结果不支持以往认为独牛是繁殖争斗失败者的观点。