Benthic metabolism responses to environmental attributes at multiple scales and its linkage to algal community structure in streams

Hydrobiologia - Human activities have increasingly impacted rivers globally and influence environmental factors at multiple scales: proximal factors (e.g., light and nutrients) and distal controls...     

Productivity,Disturbance and Ecosystem Size Have No Influence on Food Chain Length in Seasonally Connected Rivers

The food web is one of the oldest and most central organising concepts in ecology and for decades, food chain length has been hypothesised to be controlled by productivity, disturbance, and/or ecosystem size; each of which may be mediated by the functional trophic role of the top predator. We characterised aquatic food webs using carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes from 66 river and floodplain sites across the wet-dry tropics of northern Australia to determine the relative importance of productivity (indicated by nutrient concentrations), disturbance (indicated by hydrological isolation) and ecosystem size, and how they may be affected by food web architecture. We show that variation in food chain length was unrelated to these classic environmental determinants, and unrelated to the trophic role of the top predator. This finding is a striking exception to the literature and is the first published example of food chain length being unaffected by any of these determinants. We suggest the distinctive seasonal hydrology of northern Australia allows the movement of fish predators, linking isolated food webs and potentially creating a regional food web that overrides local effects of productivity, disturbance and ecosystem size. This finding supports ecological theory suggesting that mobile consumers promote more stable food webs. It also illustrates how food webs, and energy transfer, may function in the absence of the human modifications to landscape hydrological connectivity that are ubiquitous in more populated regions.     

Changes in orientation of attritional wear facets with implications for jaw motion in a mixed longitudinal sample of Propithecus edwardsi from Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar

In many mammalian species, the progressive wearing down of the teeth that occurs over an individual's lifetime has the potential to change dental function, jaw movements, or even feeding habits. The orientation of phase-I wear facets on molars reveals the direction of jaw movement during the power stroke of mastication. We investigated if and how molar wear facets change with increasing wear and/or age by examining a mixed longitudinal dataset of mandibular tooth molds from wild Propithecus edwardsi (N = 32 individuals, 86 samples). Measurements of the verticality of wear facets were obtained from three-dimensional digital models generated from μCT scans. Results show that verticality decreases over the lifetime of P. edwardsi, a change that implies an increasingly lateral translation of the jaw as the teeth move into occlusion. A more transverse phase-I power stroke supports the hypothesis that these animals chew to maximize longevity and functionality of their teeth, minimizing the "waste" of enamel, while maintaining sharp shearing crests. Results of this study indicate that wear facet verticality is more closely correlated with age than overall amount of tooth wear, measured as area of exposed dentin, suggesting that age-related changes in cranial morphology may be more responsible for adjustments in jaw motion over the lifetimes of Propithecus than wear-related changes inthe shape of occluding teeth. Finally, the rate of decrease in wear facet verticality with age is greater in males than in females suggesting differences in development and/or access to resources between the sexes in this species.     

Homology modeling, simulation and molecular docking studies of catechol-2, 3-Dioxygenase from Burkholderia cepacia: Involved in degradation of Petroleum hydrocarbons

Catechol 2, 3-dioxygenase is present in several types of bacteria and undergoes degradation of environmental pollutants through an important key biochemical pathways. Specifically, this enzyme cleaves aromatic rings of several environmental pollutants such as toluene, xylene, naphthalene and biphenyl derivatives. Hence, the importance of Catechol 2, 3-dioxygenase and its role in the degradation of environmental pollutants made us to predict the three-dimensional structure of Catechol 2, 3-dioxygenase from Burkholderia cepacia. The 10ns molecular dynamics simulation was carried out to check the stability of the modeled Catechol 2, 3- dioxygenase. The results show that the model was energetically stable, and it attains their equilibrium within 2000 ps of production MD run. The docking of various petroleum hydrocarbons into the Catechol 2,3-dioxygenase reveals that the benzene, O-xylene, Toluene, Fluorene, Naphthalene, Carbazol, Pyrene, Dibenzothiophene, Anthracene, Phenanthrene, Biphenyl makes strong hydrogen bond and Van der waals interaction with the active site residues of H150, L152, W198, H206, H220, H252, I254, T255, Y261, E271, L276 and F309. Free energy of binding and estimated inhibition constant of these compounds demonstrates that they are energetically stable in their binding cavity. Chrysene shows positive energy of binding in the active site atom of Fe. Except Pyrene all the substrates made close contact with Fe atom by the distance ranges from 1.67 to 2.43 Å. In addition to that, the above mentioned substrate except pyrene all other made π-π stacking interaction with H252 by the distance ranges from 3.40 to 3.90 Å. All these docking results reveal that, except Chrysene all other substrate has good free energy of binding to hold enough in the active site and makes strong VdW interaction with Catechol-2,3-dioxygenase. These results suggest that, the enzyme is capable of catalyzing the above-mentioned substrate.     

Identification, functional characterization, and regulation of the enzyme responsible for floral (E)-nerolidol biosynthesis in kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis)

Flowers of the kiwifruit species Actinidia chinensis produce a mixture of sesquiterpenes derived from farnesyl diphosphate (FDP) and monoterpenes derived from geranyl diphosphate (GDP). The tertiary sesquiterpene alcohol (E)-nerolidol was the major emitted volatile detected by headspace analysis. Contrastingly, in solvent extracts of the flowers, unusually high amounts of (E,E)-farnesol were observed, as well as lesser amounts of (E)-nerolidol, various farnesol and farnesal isomers, and linalool. Using a genomics-based approach, a single gene (AcNES1) was identified in an A. chinensis expressed sequence tag library that had significant homology to known floral terpene synthase enzymes. In vitro characterization of recombinant AcNES1 revealed it was an enzyme that could catalyse the conversion of FDP and GDP to the respective (E)-nerolidol and linalool terpene alcohols. Enantiomeric analysis of both AcNES1 products in vitro and floral terpenes in planta showed that (S)-(E)-nerolidol was the predominant enantiomer. Real-time PCR analysis indicated peak expression of AcNES1 correlated with peak (E)-nerolidol, but not linalool accumulation in flowers. This result, together with subcellular protein localization to the cytoplasm, indicated that AcNES1 was acting as a (S)-(E)-nerolidol synthase in A. chinensis flowers. The synthesis of high (E,E)-farnesol levels appears to compete for the available pool of FDP utilized by AcNES1 for sesquiterpene biosynthesis and hence strongly influences the accumulation and emission of (E)-nerolidol in A. chinensis flowers.     

Role of nonenzymatic glycosylation in experimental cataract formation

The relevance of nonenzymatic glycosylation of lens proteins to cataract formation was studied in rats on a normal and high galactose diet, treated with and without sorbinil, an aldose reductase inhibitor. All galactosemic rats not receiving sorbinil had cataracts; none receiving sorbinil had cataracts. Lens homogenate was treated with a 200 fold molar excess of [³H]-borohydride and the extent of glycosylation was estimated from radioactivity incorporation and quantitation of hexitol-lysine adduct after extensive dialysis. We found no differences in the radioactivity uptake nor the amounts of hexitol-lysine in the lenses of galactosemic rats treated with and without sorbinil. Thus, nonenzymatic glycosylation was not responsible for the sugar-induced cataracts.     

Safety education of pedestrians for injury prevention: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials

ObjectivesTo quantify the effectiveness of safety education of pedestrians.DesignSystematic review of randomised controlled trials of safety education programmes for pedestrians of all ages.ResultsWe identified 15 randomised controlled trials of safety education programmes for pedestrians. Fourteen trials targeted children, and one targeted institutionalised adults. None assessed the effect of safety education on the occurrence of pedestrian injury, but six trials assessed its effect on behaviour. The effect of pedestrian education on behaviour varied considerably across studies and outcomes.ConclusionsPedestrian safety education can change observed road crossing behaviour, but whether this reduces the risk of pedestrian injury in road traffic crashes is unknown. There is a lack of good evidence of effectiveness of safety education for adult pedestrians, specially elderly people. None of the trials was conducted in low or middle income countries.

What is already known on this topic

Road traffic crashes are a leading cause of death and disablement, and pedestrians are particularly vulnerable road usersSeveral organisations strongly recommend road safety educationAs resources are limited, a key question concerns the relative effectiveness of different prevention strategies, including road safety education of pedestrians

What this study adds

This systematic review showed safety education for pedestrians could improve children''s knowledge and change their observed road crossing behaviourHowever, effects on pedestrian injury were unknownThere is a lack of good evidence of effectiveness of safety education for adult pedestrians, especially elderly people, and in low and middle income countries     

The contribution of epiphyton to the primary production of tropical floodplain wetlands

Tropical floodplains are one of the most productive ecosystems on earth. Studies on floodplain productivity have primarily focused on trees and macrophytes, rather than algae, due to their greater biomass. However, epiphyton—algae and bacteria attached to the submerged portion of aquatic macrophytes—is a major source of energy in many tropical floodplains. Epiphyton productivity rates are unknown for most tropical floodplain wetlands, and spatial variability is not well understood. In this study, we measured primary productivity of epiphyton in Kakadu National Park in northern Australia. We estimated the relative contribution of epiphyton to aquatic production (epiphyton, + phytoplankton + macrophytes). We sampled sites dominated by different macrophyte structural types: vertical emerging grasses, horizontal emerging grasses, submerged macrophytes, and macrophytes with floating leaves. Epiphyton productivity was highly influenced by the structural type of the macrophyte. Highest potential productivity per weight was measured from epiphyton growing on macrophytes with floating leaves and horizontal grasses (1.52 ± 0.53 and 1.82 ± 0.61 mgC/dw g epiphyton/h, respectively) and lowest in submerged macrophytes and vertical grasses (0.57 ± 0.26 and 0.66 ± 0.47 mgC/dw g epiphyton/h, respectively). When considering the areal biomass of the macrophyte and the amount of epiphyton attached, epiphyton on horizontal grasses and submerged macrophytes had productivity values approximately ten times higher (45–219 mgC/m²/d) compared to those on vertical grasses and macrophytes with floating leaves (2–18 mgC/m²/d). Epiphyton contributed between 2 to 13 percent to the aquatic production of these tropical floodplain wetlands.     

Polyunsaturated fatty acids in stream food webs – high dissimilarity among producers and consumers

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