Trophic structure and avian communities across a salinity gradient in evaporation ponds of the San Francisco Bay estuary

Commercial salt evaporation ponds comprise a large proportion of baylands adjacent to the San Francisco Bay, a highly urbanized estuary. In the past two centuries, more than 79% of the historic tidal wetlands in this estuary have been lost. Resource management agencies have acquired more than 10 000 ha of commercial salt ponds with plans to undertake one of the largest wetland restoration projects in North America. However, these plans have created debate about the ecological importance of salt ponds for migratory bird communities in western North America. Salt ponds are unique mesohaline (5–18 g l⁻¹) to hyperhaline (> 40 g l⁻¹) wetlands, but little is known of their ecological structure or value. Thus, we studied decommissioned salt ponds in the North Bay of the San Francisco Bay estuary from January 1999 through November 2001. We measured water quality parameters (salinity, DO, pH, temperature), nutrient concentrations, primary productivity, zooplankton, macroinvertebrates, fish, and birds across a range of salinities from 24 to 264 g l⁻¹. Our studies documented how unique limnological characteristics of salt ponds were related to nutrient levels, primary productivity rates, invertebrate biomass and taxa richness, prey fish, and avian predator numbers. Salt ponds were shown to have unique trophic and physical attributes that supported large numbers of migratory birds. Therefore, managers should carefully weigh the benefits of increasing habitat for native tidal marsh species with the costs of losing these unique hypersaline systems.     

Biodiversity loss, trophic skew and ecosystem functioning

Experiments testing biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning have been criticized on the basis that their random‐assembly designs do not reflect deterministic species loss in nature. Because previous studies, and their critics, have focused primarily on plants, however, it is underappreciated that the most consistent such determinism involves biased extinction of large consumers, skewing trophic structure and substantially changing conclusions about ecosystem impacts that assume changing plant diversity alone. Both demography and anthropogenic threats render large vertebrate consumers more vulnerable to extinction, on average, than plants. Importantly, species loss appears biased toward strong interactors among animals but weak interactors among plants. Accordingly, available evidence suggests that loss of a few predator species often has impacts comparable in magnitude to those stemming from a large reduction in plant diversity. Thus, the dominant impacts of biodiversity change on ecosystem functioning appear to be trophically mediated, with important implications for conservation.     

Comparative analysis of the Hrp pathogenicity island of Rubus- and Spiraeoideae-infecting Erwinia amylovora strains identifies the IT region as a remnant of an integrative conjugative element

The Hrp pathogenicity island (hrpPAI) of Erwinia amylovora not only encodes a type III secretion system (T3SS) and other genes required for pathogenesis on host plants, but also includes the so-called island transfer (IT) region, a region that originates from an integrative conjugative element (ICE). Comparative genomic analysis of the IT regions of two Spiraeoideae- and three Rubus-infecting strains revealed that the regions in Spiraeoideae-infecting strains were syntenic and highly conserved in length and genetic information, but that the IT regions of the Rubus-infecting strains varied in gene content and length, showing a mosaic structure. None of the ICEs in E. amylovora strains were complete, as conserved ICE genes and the left border were missing, probably due to reductive genome evolution. Comparison of the hrpPAI region of E. amylovora strains to syntenic regions from other Erwinia spp. indicates that the hrpPAI and the IT regions are the result of several insertion and deletion events that have occurred within the ICE. It also suggests that the T3SS was present in a common ancestor of the pathoadapted Erwinia spp. and that insertion and deletion events in the IT region occurred during speciation.     

A theoretical model simulating the anomalous concentration dependence of the equilibrium thermal unfolding curve of noncrosslinked tropomyosin

Thermal unfolding curves of tropomyosin have so far been fit only semi-quantitatively by the statistical-mechanical theory of the helix-coil transition. The calculated values of helix content are a bit too small for the most dilute solutions and a bit too large for the most concentrated ones. The theory, as hitherto used, assumes a uniform helix-helix interaction, whereas evidence from studies on molecular segments suggests otherwise. A theoretical model incorporating such non-uniformity in helix-helix interaction is used to produce simulated thermal unfolding curves. These simulated curves, when fit to the theory using the assumption of uniformity, reveal precisely the same discrepancies seen with the experimental data. We conclude that non-uniformity in helix-helix interaction along the tropomyosin molecule is responsible for the small discrepancy between experimental data and the uniform-model theory previously employed.     

CONTROL OF THE REDOX STATE OF THE PYRIDINE NUCLEOTIDES IN THE RAT CEREBRAL CORTEX. EFFECT OF ELECTROSHOCK-INDUCED SEIZURES

—The concentrations of most of the intermediates of glycolysis and of the tricarboxylic acid cycle were determined in the cerebral cortex of rats, frozen 10 s after the induction of a generalized seizure by electroshock. The apparent equilibrium constant for the combined glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, 3-phosphoglycerate kinase and lactic dehydrogenase reactions, i.e. K_app= [Lactate] [3-Phosphoglycerate] [ATP]/[Pyruvate] [Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate] [ADP] [HPO²₄], was evaluated and found to be similar to the value reported for the in vitro system at pH 7. During an estimated 4–5-fold increase in glycolytic flux imposed by the seizure, this system remained close to equilibrium. In control cortex the components of the aldolase reaction were deviated 80-fold from equilibrium but shifted slightly toward equilibrium during the seizure. The components of the aspartate aminotransferase reaction were maintained in equilibrium in both the control and the seizure states. Of 4 reactions used to assess the cytoplasmic and mitochondrial redox states, only the lactic dehydrogenase reaction was considered reliable in the acutely changing situation of the seizure, and yielded a calculated decrease in the cytoplasmic [NAD⁺]/[NADH] ratio. This change, coupled with an observed decrease in the [ATP]/[ADP] [HPO²₄] ratio during the seizure, supports the concept that in brain, as in liver (Krebs & Veech , 1969), the phosphate potential determines the redox state of the tissue.     

Crossing over during Caenorhabditis elegans meiosis requires a conserved MutS-based pathway that is partially dispensable in budding yeast.

Formation of crossovers between homologous chromosomes during Caenorhabditis elegans meiosis requires the him-14 gene. Loss of him-14 function severely reduces crossing over, resulting in lack of chiasmata between homologs and consequent missegregation. Cytological analysis showing that homologs are paired and aligned in him-14 pachytene nuclei, together with temperature-shift experiments showing that him-14 functions during the pachytene stage, indicate that him-14 is not needed to establish pairing or synapsis and likely has a more direct role in crossover formation. him-14 encodes a germline-specific member of the MutS family of DNA mismatch repair (MMR) proteins. him-14 has no apparent role in MMR, but like its Saccharomyces cerevisiae ortholog MSH4, has a specialized role in promoting crossing over during meiosis. Despite this conservation, worms and yeast differ significantly in their reliance on this pathway: whereas worms use this pathway to generate most, if not all, crossovers, yeast still form 30-50% of their normal number of crossovers when this pathway is absent. This differential reliance may reflect differential stability of crossover-competent recombination intermediates, or alternatively, the presence of two different pathways for crossover formation in yeast, only one of which predominates during nematode meiosis. We discuss a model in which HIM-14 promotes crossing over by interfering with Holliday junction branch migration.     

Laser excitation of fluorescent-labeled polypeptides in polyacrylamide gels

A laser beam at 488 nm, converted into a fan of light by a surface-coated mirror oscillated in response to a triangular wave, was inserted into the base of a polyacrylamide gel. The laser light was trapped by internal reflection and gave uniform illumination throughout the entire gel slab. Photography with color film detected 50 fmol of fluorescein covalently coupled to ovalbumin, gave 80-fold greater sensitivity than transillumination in detection of fluorescein-labeled polypeptides, and was about 25-fold more sensitive than protein staining with silver. Laser illumination visualized end-labeled beta-galactosidase, afforded quality control of such preparations, and demonstrated that the end-labeled derivative contained about 25-fold less fluorescein than uniformly labeled beta-galactosidase. The latter result was confirmed by dot-blot analysis using a polyclonal antibody specific for fluorescein. The application of end-labeling to the location of features of protein primary structure is discussed.     

Involvement of arginine residues in the binding site of cholera toxin subunit B.

Modification of one or two of three guanido groups in the binding subunit (B) of cholera toxin was achieved at pH 9 with cyclohexanedione at 50 mM or 150 mM concentration, respectively. No change in the helix content or the pentameric structure was observed in the process. The ability to form precipitate with ganglioside G_ml or anti-cholera toxin antibody was abolished only when two of the three arginine residues were modified. Analyses of Arg-containing peptides revealed that reaction with cyclohexanedione occurred first with Arg-73 and then with Arg-35. This suggests that Arg-35 or the region in proximity is involved in the interaction of subunit B with ganglioside G_ml or the antibody. A diagram of secondary structure as predicted by the Chou-Fasman rule indicates that this region is within a long stretch of β-sheet configuration.