盐生植物内生菌多样性与募集研究进展

内生菌在盐生植物适应高盐环境中有重要作用,其类群组成受环境盐胁迫、宿主植物及微生物生物学特性的调控。环境胁迫会通过宿主生理状态传递到共生微生物,进而塑造特殊的内生菌类群,同时一种微生物是否可以成为内生菌又受宿主和微生物自身生物学特征的双重影响。植物只可以募集已经存在于环境在的微生物,由此为利用微生物改善植物的逆境适应提供了基础。该文章就盐胁迫如何塑造盐生植物内生菌类群及植物如何募集外源微生物进行了综述,为了解共生抗盐和利用微生物改良盐碱环境提供参考。     

离子通道递质受体大家族:每种受体所特有的变构调制中心在神经药理学中的重要性

美国飞迪亚-乔治城神经科学研究所所长、美国科学院院士E.Costa博士,1989年1月10日来北京接受北京医科大学授予名誉教授衔。Costa教授在该仪式上所作的报告指出了当前神经递质研究的新方向,具有重要的学术意义。特予介绍,以飨读者。     

Size-dependent locomotory performance creates a behaviorally mediated prey size refuge in the marine snail Olivella sem istriata:a study in the natural habitat

The effects of the variability of individual prey locomotory performance on the vulnerability to predation are poorly understood,partly because individual performance is difficult to determine in natural habitats.To gain insights into the role(s)of individual variation in predatory relationships,we study a convenient model system,the neotropical sandy beach gastropod Olivella semistriata and its main predator,the carnivorous snail Agaronia propatula.The largest size class of O.semistriata is known to be missing from A.propatula's spectrum of subdued prey,although the predator regularly captures much larger individuals of other taxa.To resolve this conundrum,we analyzed predation attempts in the wild.While A.propatula attacked O.semistriata of all sizes,large prey specimens usually escaped by'sculling',an accelerated,stepping mode of locomotion.Olivella semistriata performed sculling locomotion regardless of size,but sculling velocities determined in the natural environment increased strongly with size.Thus,growth in size as such does not establish a prey size refuge in which O.semistriata is safe from predation.Rather,a behaviorally mediated size refuge is created through the size-dependence of sculling performance.Taken together,this work presents a rare quantitative characterization in the natural habitat of the causal sequence from the size-dependence of individual performance,to the prey size-dependent outcome of predation attempts,to the size bias in the predator's prey spectrum.     

Relationships between personality traits and the physiological stress response in a wild mammal

Glucocorticoids(GCs)are involved in the regulation of an animal's energetic state.Under stressful situations,they are part of the neuroendocrine response to cope with environmental challenges.Animals react to aversive stimuli also through behavioral responses,defined as coping styles.Both in captive and wild populations,individuals differ in their behavior along a proactive-reactive continuum.Proactive animals exhibit a bold,active explorative and social personality,whereas reactive ones areshy,less active-explorative and less social.Here,we test the hypothesis that personality traits and physiological responses to stressors covary,with more proactive individuals having a less pronounced GC stress response.In wild populations of invasive gray squirrels Sciurus carolinensis,we measuredfecal glucocorticoid metabolites(FGMs),an integrated measure of circulating GCs,and 3 personality traits(activity,sociability,and exploration)derived from open field test(OFT)and mirror image stimulation(MIS)test.Gray squirrels had higher FGMs in Autumn than in Winter and males with scrotal testes had higher FGMs than nonbreeding males.Personality varied with body mass and population density.Squirrels expressed more activity exploration at higher than at lower density and heavier squirrels had higher scores for activity exploration than animals that weighed less.Variation in FGM concentrations was not correlated with the expression of the 3 personality traits.Hence,our results do not support a strong association between the behavioral and physiological stress responses but show that in wild populations,where animals experience varying environmental conditions,the GC endocrine response and the expression of personality are uncorrelated traits among individuals.     

A large-scale gene discovery for the red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus （Coleoptera： Curculionidae）

The red palm weevil （RPW; Rhynchophorusferrugineus） is a devastating pest of palms, prevalent in the Middle East as well as many other regions of the world. Here, we report a large-scale de novo complementary DNA （cDNA） sequencing effort that acquired ~5 million reads and assembled them into 26 765 contigs from 12 libraries made from samples of different RPW developmental stages based on the Roche/454 GS FLX platform. We annotated these contigs based on the publically available known insect genes and the Tribolium castaneum genome assembly. We find that over 80% of coding sequences （CDS） from the RPW contigs have high-identity homologs to known proteins with complete CDS. Gene expression analysis shows that the pupa and larval stages have the highest and lowest expression levels, respectively. In addition, we also identified more than 60 000 single nucleotide polymorphisms and 1 200 simple sequence repeat markers. This study provides the first large-scale eDNA dataset for RPW, a much-needed resource for future molecular studies.     

从国家自然科学基金项目资助看植物科学态势

通过对2010-2015年度国家自然科学基金委员会生命科学部植物学学科资助的各类项目进行统计分析,总结了植物学学科资助的整体概况,详细分析了各类科学基金项目的资助特点、在不同分支学科和领域中的分布以及获资助排名前列的依托单位,并展望了我国未来植物学学科的发展趋势。     

不同水氮梯度下典型挺水植物叶绿素荧光的响应特性

叶绿素荧光测量分析可以揭示植物叶片光化学效率的变化,已越来越多地应用于植物生态监测。以再生水为主要补给水源的北京门城湖湿地公园为研究区,选取典型湿地挺水植物芦苇(Phragmites australis)、香蒲(Typha angustifolia)和茭白(Zizania latifolia)为研究对象,通过野外测量叶片尺度的叶绿素荧光参数和室内测定对应样点的水体总氮含量指标,研究了再生水补给条件下,不同水氮梯度植物叶绿素荧光的响应特性。结果表明,3种典型挺水植物的初始荧光(Fo)与最大荧光(Fm)随着水体总氮含量的增加呈现上升的趋势;PSII的量子效率(F_v/F_m)与实际量子效率(ΦPSII)受水氮含量的影响先升高,达到15–20 mg·L~(–1)区间时,则与之持平;光化学淬灭(qP)参数则呈现先升高后降低的变化趋势,而非光化学淬灭(NPQ)参数的变化没有明显的规律。当水氮含量为15–20 mg·L~(–1)时,光化学反应减弱,光合作用出现抑制。不同类型植物的荧光参数也有所不同,处于生长期(6月)植物的光合作用显著强于生长成熟期(9月)。     

种子物理休眠研究进展

种子物理休眠是由种皮不透水层引起的一种休眠类型,是植物在长期系统发育进程中获得的一种适应环境变化的特性。该文简述了种子物理休眠的定义与概念;从不透水层、种皮的特殊水孔器结构以及胚的形态特异性等方面,综述了物理休眠种子的形态特征、物理休眠与综合休眠的解除方法以及物理休眠的可能解除机制;利用Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Ⅲ(APG Ⅲ)系统分析了种子物理休眠的植物在系统发育中的位置;最后提出了今后种子物理休眠有待研究的主要问题。     

A biotrophic fungal infection of the great burnet Sanguisorba officinalis indirectly affects caterpillar performance of the endangered scarce large blue butterfly Phengaris teleius

Interactions between ecological communities of herbivores and microbes are commonly mediated by a shared plant. A tripartite interaction between a pathogenic fungus-host plant-herbivorous insect is an example of such mutual influences. In such a system a fungal pathogen commonly has a negative influence on the morphology and biochemistry of the host plant, with consequences for insect herbivore performance. Here we studied whether the biotrophic fbngus Podosphaera ferruginea, attacking the great burnet Sanguisorba officinalis, affects caterpillar performance of the endangered scarce large blue butterfly Phengaris teleius. Our results showed that the pathogenic ftmgus affected the number and size of inflorescences produced by food-plants and, more importantly, had in direct, plant-mediated effects on the abun dance, body mass and immune response of caterpillars. Specifically, we found the relationship between caterpillar abundance and variability in inflorescence size on a plant to be positive among healthy food-plants, and negative among infected food-plants. Caterpillars that fed on healthy food-plants were smaller than those that fed on infected food-plants in one studied season, while there was no such difference in the other season. We observed the relationship between caterpillar immune response and the proportion of infected great burnets within a habitat patch to be positive when caterpillars fed on healthy food-plants, and negative when caterpillars fed on infected food-plants. Our results suggest that this biotrophic fungal infection of the great burnet may impose a significant indirect influence on P. teleius caterpillar performance with potential consequences for the population dynamics and structure of this endangered butterfly.