Differential physico-chemical tolerances of amphipod species revealed by field transplantations

Physico-chemical regimes of river systems are major determinants of the distributions and relative abundances of macroinvertebrate taxa. Other factors, however, such as biotic interactions, may co-vary with changes in physico-chemistry and concomitant changes in community composition. Thus, direct cause and effect relationships may not always be established from field surveys. Equally, however, laboratory studies may suffer from lack of realism in extrapolation to the field. Here, we use balanced field transplantation experiments to elucidate the role of physico-chemical regime in determining the generally mutually exclusive distributions of two amphipod taxa, Gammarus (two species) and Crangonyx pseudogracilis. Within two river systems in Ireland, the former species dominate stretches of well oxygenated, high-quality water, whereas the latter dominates stretches of poorly oxygenated, low-quality water. G. pulex and G. duebeni celticus did not survive in bioassay tubes in areas dominated by C. pseudogracilis, which itself survived in tubes in such areas. However, both C. pseudogracilis and Gammarus spp. survived equally well in tubes in areas dominated by Gammarus spp. Physico-chemical regime thus limits the movement of Gammarus spp. into C. pseudogracilis areas, but some other factor excludes C. pseudogracilis from Gammarus spp. areas. Since previous laboratory experiments showed high predation rates of Gammarus spp. on C. pseudogracilis, we propose that predation by the former causes exclusion of the latter. Hence, presumed effects of physico-chemical regime on macroinvertebrate presence/abundance may often require experimental field testing and appreciation of alternative explanations. Received: 14 June 1999 / Accepted: 20 January 2000     

Susceptibility of opium poppy and pyrethrum to root infection by Spongospora subterranea

Spongospora subterranea, which causes powdery scab of potato, infects a diverse range of plant species. Crop rotation as a powdery scab management tool will be compromised if pathogen hosts exist between potato crops. Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) and pyrethrum (Tanacetum cinerariifolium) are important crops within intensive vegetable production rotations in NW Tasmania. Measurements of S. subterranea soil inoculum within a commercial field showed pathogen amounts were substantially elevated following an opium poppy crop, which suggested host status. In glasshouse testing, opium poppy and pyrethrum were confirmed as hosts of S. subterranea, with opium poppy the more susceptible of the two. Both species were less susceptible than tomato, a known host. Observations of early growth suggested inoculation impacts on all three plant species, although at 16 (tomato and opium poppy) or 26 (pyrethrum) weeks postinoculation, only tomato had significantly reduced shoot and root development. The role of rotation crops in inoculum persistence and the possible role of S. subterranea as a minor pathogen of nonpotato crops are discussed.     

Foraging environment determines the genetic architecture and evolutionary potential of trophic morphology in cichlid fishes

Phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to change their phenotype in response to shifts in the environment. While a central topic in current discussions of evolutionary potential, a comprehensive understanding of the genetic underpinnings of plasticity is lacking in systems undergoing adaptive diversification. Here, we investigate the genetic basis of phenotypic plasticity in a textbook adaptive radiation, Lake Malawi cichlid fishes. Specifically, we crossed two divergent species to generate an F₃ hybrid mapping population. At early juvenile stages, hybrid families were split and reared in alternate foraging environments that mimicked benthic/scraping or limnetic/sucking modes of feeding. These alternate treatments produced a variation in morphology that was broadly similar to the major axis of divergence among Malawi cichlids, providing support for the flexible stem theory of adaptive radiation. Next, we found that the genetic architecture of several morphological traits was highly sensitive to the environment. In particular, of 22 significant quantitative trait loci (QTL), only one was shared between the environments. In addition, we identified QTL acting across environments with alternate alleles being differentially sensitive to the environment. Thus, our data suggest that while plasticity is largely determined by loci specific to a given environment, it may also be influenced by loci operating across environments. Finally, our mapping data provide evidence for the evolution of plasticity via genetic assimilation at an important regulatory locus, ptch1. In all, our data address long‐standing discussions about the genetic basis and evolution of plasticity. They also underscore the importance of the environment in affecting developmental outcomes, genetic architectures, morphological diversity and evolutionary potential.     

Characterization of the Streptomyces plasmid pVE1

pVE1 (11.0 kb) was isolated from Streptomyces venezuelae ATCC 14585 and characterized. pVE1 has a broad host range and an apparent copy number of about 100 during exponential growth, rising to 1500 during stationary phase. It is a pock-forming, self-transmissible fertility factor which promotes chromosome recombination in S. lividans at frequencies of about 0.1% per total parents. A detailed restriction map for 15 enzymes was determined. Genes for ThioR (thiostrepton resistance), NeoR (neomycin resistance), and pBR322 derivatives were inserted into pVE1 and the resulting plasmids were analyzed for self-transmissibility and stability. The plasmid has an essential region of approximately 2.5 kb and a region of 1.0-3.6 kb required for conjugation. NeoR and ThioR vectors were constructed with unique HindIII, PvuI, BamHI, EcoRI, BglII, and EcoRV sites available for insertion of foreign DNA.     

Stimulation of hormone-responsive adenylate cyclase activity by a factor present in the cell cytosol.

1. Homogenates of whole tissues were shown to contain both intracellular and extracellular factors that affected particulate adenylate cyclase activity in vitro. Factors present in the extracellular fluids produced an inhibition of basal, hormone- and fluoride-stimulated enzyme activity but factors present in the cell cytosol increased hormone-stimulated activity with relatively little effect on basal or fluoride-stimulated enzyme activity. 2. The existence of this cytosol factor or factors was investigated using freshly isolated human platelets, freshly isolated rat hepatocytes, and cultured cells derived from rat osteogenic sarcoma, rat calvaria, mouse melanoma, pig aortic endothelium, human articular cartilage chondrocytes and human bronchial carcinoma (BEN) cells. 3. The stimulation of the hormone response by the cytosol factor ranged from 60 to 890% depending on the tissue of origin of the adenylate cyclase. 4. In each case the behaviour of the factor was similar to the action of GTP on that particular adenylate cyclase preparation. 5. No evidence of tissue or species specificity was found, as cytosols stimulated adenylate cyclase from their own and unrelated tissues to the same degree. 6. In the human platelet, the inclusion of the cytosol in the assay of adenylate cyclase increased the rate of enzyme activity in response to stimulation by prostaglandin E1 without affecting the amount of prostaglandin E1 required for half-maximal stimulation or the characteristics of enzyme activation by prostaglandin E.     

Ant colony optimization as a method for strategic genotype sampling

A simulation study was carried out to develop an alternative method of selecting animals to be genotyped. Simulated pedigrees included 5000 animals, each assigned genotypes for a bi-allelic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) based on assumed allelic frequencies of 0.7/0.3 and 0.5/0.5. In addition to simulated pedigrees, two beef cattle pedigrees, one from field data and the other from a research population, were used to test selected methods using simulated genotypes. The proposed method of ant colony optimization (ACO) was evaluated based on the number of alleles correctly assigned to ungenotyped animals (AK_P), the probability of assigning true alleles (AK_G) and the probability of correctly assigning genotypes (APTG). The proposed animal selection method of ant colony optimization was compared to selection using the diagonal elements of the inverse of the relationship matrix (A⁻¹). Comparisons of these two methods showed that ACO yielded an increase in AK_P ranging from 4.98% to 5.16% and an increase in APTG from 1.6% to 1.8% using simulated pedigrees. Gains in field data and research pedigrees were slightly lower. These results suggest that ACO can provide a better genotyping strategy, when compared to A⁻¹, with different pedigree sizes and structures.     

Evaluation of HPV Infection and Smoking Status Impacts on Cell Proliferation in Epithelial Layers of Cervical Neoplasia

Accurate cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN) lesion grading is needed for effective patient management. We applied computer-assisted scanning and analytic approaches to immuno-stained CIN lesion sections to more accurately delineate disease states and decipher cell proliferation impacts from HPV and smoking within individual epithelial layers. A patient cohort undergoing cervical screening was identified (n = 196) and biopsies of varying disease grades and with intact basement membranes and epithelial layers were obtained (n = 261). Specimens were sectioned, stained (Mib1), and scanned using a high-resolution imaging system. We achieved semi-automated delineation of proliferation status and epithelial cell layers using Otsu segmentation, manual image review, Voronoi tessellation, and immuno-staining. Data were interrogated against known status for HPV infection, smoking, and disease grade. We observed increased cell proliferation and decreased epithelial thickness with increased disease grade (when analyzing the epithelium at full thickness). Analysis within individual cell layers showed a ≥50% increase in cell proliferation for CIN2 vs. CIN1 lesions in higher epithelial layers (with minimal differences seen in basal/parabasal layers). Higher rates of proliferation for HPV-positive vs. -negative cases were seen in epithelial layers beyond the basal/parabasal layers in normal and CIN1 tissues. Comparing smokers vs. non-smokers, we observed increased cell proliferation in parabasal (low and high grade lesions) and basal layers (high grade only). In sum, we report CIN grade-specific differences in cell proliferation within individual epithelial layers. We also show HPV and smoking impacts on cell layer-specific proliferation. Our findings yield insight into CIN progression biology and demonstrate that rigorous, semi-automated imaging of histopathological specimens may be applied to improve disease grading accuracy.