Association between antibody response against cytomegalovirus strain-specific glycoprotein H epitopes and HLA-DR

The gH of CMV is a major target for strain-specific neutralizing antibodies. To verify whether there is a correlation between HLA-DR type and strain-specific antibodies, antibodies against CMV gH in potential donors and recipients for renal transplantation were investigated. Among 471 subjects, 404 (86%) showed reactivity to CMV gH, but no antibodies against gH were detected in 67 (14%) subjects. The positive rates were over 80% in most HLA subpopulations. Fewer subjects with HLA-DR10 and DR11 had antibodies to CMV gH than did those without HLA-DR10 and DR11. HLA-DR10 and DR11 may be associated with fewer/non-responders for strain-specific neutralizing antibodies.     

The patch mosaic of an old-growth warm-temperate forest: patch-level descriptions of 40-year gap-forming processes and community structures

Old-growth forests consist of various types of small patches that reflect their own gap-forming process, which includes changes in environmental conditions occurring over several decades. We reconstructed the gap-forming processes that had occurred during a 40-year period for eight representative patches of an old-growth evergreen broad-leaved forest in Japan, and examined the current community structure. The selected patches were based on (1) changes in canopy heights estimated from aerial photographs taken in four different years, (2) long-term ecological research (LTER) monitoring records, and (3) a recent field survey, so that they sufficiently covered characteristic gap-forming processes such as a new gap, an old gap and consistently closed canopy. Height and diameter at breast height (DBH) were measured on all living trees taller than 1.3 m. In their height distributions, currently almost closed patches that were open in 1966 show a rotated sigmoid, whereas their DBH distributions are an inverse J-shape. In contrast, patches that have been consistently under a closed canopy exhibit gentle inverse J-shapes for both distributions. For species composition, there are no clear contrasts associated with the past gap-forming processes except for the existence of fast-growing deciduous species in large currently open patches. Our results suggested that the variation in several decades of gap-forming processes played a central role in the high patch diversity and the complex patch mosaic of the forest. Diverse gap-forming processes created micro-environmental heterogeneity both vertically and horizontally, and contributed to the maintenance of the species-rich, warm-temperate old-growth forest.     

Exceptional carbon uptake in European forests during the warm spring of 2007: a data–model analysis

Temperate and boreal forests undergo drastic functional changes in the springtime, shifting within a few weeks from net carbon (C) sources to net C sinks. Most of these changes are mediated by temperature. The autumn 2006–winter 2007 record warm period was followed by an exceptionally warm spring in Europe, making spring 2007 a good candidate for advances in the onset of the photosynthetically active period. An analysis of a decade of eddy covariance data from six European forests stands, which encompass a wide range of functional types (broadleaf evergreen, broadleaf deciduous, needleleaf evergreen) and a wide latitudinal band (from 44° to 62°N), revealed exceptional fluxes during spring 2007. Gross primary productivity (GPP) of spring 2007 was the maximum recorded in the decade examined for all sites but a Mediterranean evergreen forest (with a +40 to +130 gC m^?2 anomaly compared with the decadal mean over the January–May period). Total ecosystem respiration (TER) was also promoted during spring 2007, though less anomalous than GPP (with a +17 to +93 gC m^?2 anomaly over 5 months), leading to higher net uptake than the long‐term mean at all sites (+12 to +79 gC m^?2 anomaly over 5 months). A correlative analysis relating springtime C fluxes to simple phenological indices suggested spring C uptake and temperatures to be related. The CASTANEA process‐based model was used to disentangle the seasonality of climatic drivers (incoming radiation, air and soil temperatures) and biological drivers (canopy dynamics, thermal acclimation of photosynthesis to low temperatures) on spring C fluxes along the latitudinal gradient. A sensitivity analysis of model simulations evidenced the roles of (i) an exceptional early budburst combined with elevated air temperature in deciduous sites, and (ii) an early relief of winter thermal acclimation in coniferous sites for the promotion of 2007 spring assimilation.     

Understanding Fluctuations in Bobcat Harvest at the Northern Limit of Their Range

ABSTRACT In Quebec, Canada, harvest of bobcats (Lynx rufus) started to decline in 1985 and by 1991, harvest seasons were closed due to concerns of a perceived population decline. Since the closing of harvest season in 1991, the average temperature has increased, snow quantity has decreased, and important changes in agriculture and forest management have occurred. In light of changing conditions, the situation of Quebec bobcats needed reassessment. Thus, we analyzed harvest data to clarify the current status of bobcat populations in Quebec. From 1980 to 1991, bobcat harvest in Quebec was strongly correlated with bobcat harvest in Maine (USA), Nova Scotia (Canada), Ontario (Canada), and Vermont (USA). Extrapolations of harvest in Quebec relative to harvest in Maine, Ontario, Vermont, and Nova Scotia suggested an increase in number of bobcats after 1991. Mass of male and female bobcats before 1991 was less than mass of animals captured after 1991. Percentage of juveniles in the reported harvest before 1991 was higher than after 1991. However, percentage of males and litter sizes in the harvest did not differ before and after 1991. The geographic distribution of bobcats captured has gradually expanded after the closure of the harvest season. Our findings suggest that bobcat populations in Quebec have recovered from the 1985–1991 decline, and that the harvest season for this species could resume. This study also illustrates how managers can rely on data from neighboring jurisdiction to manage species when local harvest data is unavailable.     

Relationship between photochemical reflectance index and leaf ecophysiological and biochemical parameters under two different water statuses: towards a rapid and efficient correction method using real‐time measurements

The use of the photochemical reflectance index (PRI) as a promising proxy of light use efficiency (LUE) has been extensively studied, and some issues have been identified, notably the sensitivity of PRI to leaf pigment composition and the variability in PRI response to LUE because of stress. In this study, we introduce a method that enables us to track the short‐term PRI response to LUE changes because of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) changes. The analysis of these short‐term relationships between PRI and LUE throughout the growing season in two species (Quercus robur L. and Fagus sylvatica L.) under two different soil water statuses showed a clear change in PRI response to LUE, which is related to leaf pigment content. The use of an estimated or approximated PRI0, defined as the PRI of perfectly dark‐adapted leaves, allowed us to separate the PRI variability due to leaf pigment content changes and the physiologically related PRI variability over both daily (PAR‐related) and seasonal (soil water content‐related) scales. The corrected PRI obtained by subtracting PRI0 from the PRI measurements showed a good correlation with the LUE over both of the species, soil water statuses and over the entire growing season.     

Effects of Adding Alkaline Material on the Heavy Metal Chemical Fractions in Soil under Flooded and Non-Flooded Conditions

We investigated the effect of adding an alkaline material (containing calcium carbonate and gypsum) on the immobilization of heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn) in a paddy soil slightly contaminated with Cd and Zn under flooded and non-flooded conditions in the laboratory. Adding the alkaline material increased the soil pH and significantly decreased the exchangeable fraction of all of the metals, especially for Cd (>75% decrease) and Zn (ca. 90% decrease), under both flooded and non-flooded conditions. Drying the flooded soil samples increased the ratio of exchangeable fraction to the total fraction, particularly for Cd. The exchangeable fraction ratio was lower in the dried, previously flooded samples that contained the alkaline material than in the samples that did not contain the alkaline material, indicating that adding the alkaline material would be an effective way of immobilizing heavy metals during the oxidation of anoxic soils. These results show that the alkaline material can be used to immobilize heavy metals under both anoxic and oxic conditions, and that the effects of flooding and amending a paddy soil with alkaline material on the chemical forms will be different between heavy metals.     

Palaeohistology of the bones of pterosaurs (Reptilia: Archosauria): anatomy, ontogeny, and biomechanical implications

Thin sections from long bones of specimens representing pterosaurs ranging from the Early Jurassic to the latest Cretaceous provide a profile of bone histology across a range of sizes, skeletal elements, growth stages, and phylogenetic positions. Most pterosaur bone is fibro-lamellar, organized in an unusual way that suggests high growth rates through ontogeny. Fibro-lamellar deposits are finished by a relatively abrupt deceleration or cessation of growth represented by lamellar, poorly vascularized subperiosteal bone in what appear to be adults. Pterosaurs had the thinnest bone walls of any tetrapods; they complemented high rates of periosteal deposition with almost equally high rates of endosteal erosion. Pterosaurs show a great variety of histologic features that include articular calcified cartilage, sub-chondral bone plates, trabecular bone struts and related internal supports, and secondary deposition and remodeling of bone. They remodeled their bones internally by (1) depositing endosteal bone coatings on the inner cortex and over struts of pre-existing internal bone, (2) secondarily filling bone spaces, and (3) Haversian reworking. The construction of these struts reflects both developmental patterns of bone construction and biomechanical function. Alternating plywood-like layers of bone, heretofore undescribed in tetrapods, provided strength, as did the obliquely oriented system of reticular blood vessels in the bones. The distribution and ontogenetic features of pterosaur bone tissues, when combined with other evidence, suggest generally high growth rates, high metabolic levels, altricial birth, and extended parental care.     

New replication mutant pnh602 and its relationship to plasmid pAS3, another deletion derivative of plasmid R6K

A stable deletion derivative pNH602 was obtained when the recently described higher-copy-number point mutant pNH601 of plasmid R6K was introduced to a minicells-producing strain of Escherichia coli. The size of plasmid pNH602 is 18.8 Mg/mol as determined by electron microscopy. The 7.2 Mg/mol fragment of R6K genome missing in pNH602 carries the Smr-determinant and the region finO and, according to the results of restriction analysis, it includes one EcoRI site. With its radioisotopically determined 33 copies of pNH602 per E. coli K-12 chromosome (npc), representing a 23% increase of the point mutant pNH601 and 150% enhancement of R6K npc, plasmid pNH602 differs from another closely related R6K deletion derivative pAS3 of the same size which exhibits only 20 npc. Both pNH602 and pAS3 plasmids are conjugative.     

Pf155/RESA antigen is localized in dense granules of Plasmodium falciparum merozoites

Immunoelectron microscopy demonstrated the presence of Pf155/RESA in dense granules of Plasmodium falciparum merozoites rather than in micronemes as previously suggested. Since the dense granules are released after the merozoite enters the parasitophorous vacuole, the role of Pf155/RESA in invasion and subsequent steps of parasite development may differ from that of a molecule located in the micronemes.