Construction of a recombinant BHV-1 expressing the VP1 gene of foot and mouth disease virus and its immunogenicity in a rabbit model

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) are two important infectious diseases of cattle. Using bovine herpesvirus type 1 (BHV-1) as a gene delivery vector for development of live-viral vaccines has gained widespread interest. In this study, a recombinant BHV-1 was constructed by inserting the synthetic FMDV (O/China/99) VP1 gene in the the gE locus of BHV-1 genome under the control of immediately early gene promoter of human cytomegalovirus (phIE CMV) and bovine growth hormone polyadenylation (BGH polyA) signal. After homologous recombination and plaque purification, a recombinant virus named BHV-1/gE⁻/VP1 was acquired and identified. The immunogenicity was confirmed in a rabbit model by virus neutralization test and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The result indicated that the BHV-1/gE⁻/VP1 has the potential for being developed as a bivalent vaccine for FMD and IBR.     

A Puzzle Unsolved: Failure to Observe Different Effects of God and Religion Primes on Intergroup Attitudes

Religious priming has been found to have both positive and negative consequences, and recent research suggests that the activation of God-related and community-related religious cognitions may cause outgroup prosociality and outgroup derogation respectively. The present research sought to examine whether reminders of God and religion have different effects on attitudes towards ingroup and outgroup members. Over two studies, little evidence was found for different effects of these two types of religious primes. In study 1, individuals primed with the words “religion”, “God” and a neutral control word evaluated both ingroup and outgroup members similarly, although a marginal tendency towards more negative evaluations of outgroup members by females exposed to religion primes was observed. In study 2, no significant differences in attitudes towards an outgroup member were observed between the God, religion, and neutral priming conditions. Furthermore, the gender effect observed in study 1 did not replicate in this second study. Possible explanations for these null effects are discussed.     

尖孢镰刀菌(Fusarium oxysporum)诱导矿化回收稀土离子La(Ⅲ)

[目的] 从罗源湾红树林浅滩土壤中筛选出产脲酶真菌,研究其对镧La（Ⅲ）的最大耐受浓度,利用其吸附和产脲酶作用诱导矿化回收稀土离子La（Ⅲ）,以期为稀土离子La（Ⅲ）的资源回收提供菌种资源和应用技术指导。[方法] 从罗源湾红树林浅滩土壤中分离、筛选、纯化出可产脲酶及耐La（Ⅲ）真菌,通过ITS rDNA基因序列分析对其进行鉴定;同时,利用XRD、SEM-Mapping及FT-IR分析探讨菌株回收La（Ⅲ）的机理。[结果] 经分离、纯化得到一株可产脲酶及耐受高浓度La（Ⅲ）的真菌FZU-07,鉴定为尖孢镰刀菌（Fusarium oxysporum）,其具有较强诱导矿化回收La（Ⅲ）的能力,对La（Ⅲ）的最大耐受浓度为400 mg/L。菌株FZU-07单独对La（Ⅲ）吸附回收效率为46.19%;在诱导矿化条件下回收效率可提高到99.16%。FT-IR和SEM-Mapping分析表明,尖孢镰刀菌吸附La（Ⅲ）与菌丝体表面的氨基、羟基、羰基和磷酸基团相关;XRD和SEM-Mapping结果表明诱导矿化是通过该菌的产脲酶特性,使尿素分解产生碳酸,并与钙离子结合生成球霰石晶型的碳酸钙,La（Ⅲ）被捕获在球霰石晶格中,形成La（Ⅲ）和碳酸钙的混合固相,以共沉淀的形式被回收。[结论] 菌株FZU-07,是一株具有产脲酶特性的尖孢镰刀菌（Fusarium oxysporum）,且具有较强的诱导矿化回收La（Ⅲ）能力。表明微生物诱导碳酸钙沉淀是一种可行且生态友好的回收稀土离子的方法。     

Phylogenetic Analysis of AA-genome Oryza Species (Poaceae) Based on Chloroplast, Mitochondrial, and Nuclear DNA Sequences

Species in the genus Oryza (Poaceae) contain 10 genomic types and are distributed in pan-tropics of the world. To explore phylogenetic relationships of Oryza species having the AA-genome, DNA sequences of the chloroplast trnL intron and trnL-trnF spacer, mitochondrial nad1 intron 2, and nuclear internal transcribed spacer were analyzed, based on materials from 6 cultivated (O. sativa and O. glaberrima) and 13 wild accessions, in addition to a CC-genome species (O. officinalis) that was used as an outgroup. Analyses of the combined sequence data set from different sources provide a much better resolution of the AA-genome species than the individual data set, indicating the limitation of a single gene in phylogenetic reconstruction. The phylogeny based on the combined data set demonstrated an apparent grouping of the AA-genome Oryza species that was well associated with their geographic origin, although the Australian O. meridionalis showed its affinity with the African species. The geographic pattern of the phylogenetic relationship was probably attributed to the frequent genetic exchange and introgression among the AA-genome species from the same continents. In addition, Asian cultivated rice O. sativa showed its close relation to O. rufipogon and O. nivara, whereas African cultivated rice O. glaberrima was closely linked to O. barthii and O. longistaminata, indicating the independent domestication of the two cultivated species in different geographic locations.     

The Value of Artificial Stimuli in Behavioral Research: Making the Case for Egg Rejection Studies in Avian Brood Parasitism

Experimentation is at the heart of classical and modern behavioral ecology research. The manipulation of natural cues allows us to establish causation between aspects of the environment, both internal and external to organisms, and their effects on animals' behaviors. In recognition systems research, including the quest to understand the coevolution of sensory cues and decision rules underlying the rejection of foreign eggs by hosts of avian brood parasites, artificial stimuli have been used extensively, but not without controversy. In response to repeated criticism about the value of artificial stimuli, we describe four potential benefits of using them in egg recognition research, two each at the proximate and ultimate levels of analysis: (1) the standardization of stimuli for developmental studies and (2) the disassociation of correlated traits of egg phenotypes used for sensory discrimination, as well as (3) the estimation of the strength of selection on parasitic egg mimicry and (4) the establishment of the evolved limits of sensory and cognitive plasticity. We also highlight constraints of the artificial stimulus approach and provide a specific test of whether responses to artificial cues can accurately predict responses to natural cues. Artificial stimuli have a general value in ethological research beyond research in brood parasitism and may be especially critical in field studies involving the manipulation of a single parameter, where other, confounding variables are difficult or impossible to control experimentally or statistically.     

The USDA Barley Core Collection: Genetic Diversity,Population Structure,and Potential for Genome-Wide Association Studies

New sources of genetic diversity must be incorporated into plant breeding programs if they are to continue increasing grain yield and quality, and tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses. Germplasm collections provide a source of genetic and phenotypic diversity, but characterization of these resources is required to increase their utility for breeding programs. We used a barley SNP iSelect platform with 7,842 SNPs to genotype 2,417 barley accessions sampled from the USDA National Small Grains Collection of 33,176 accessions. Most of the accessions in this core collection are categorized as landraces or cultivars/breeding lines and were obtained from more than 100 countries. Both STRUCTURE and principal component analysis identified five major subpopulations within the core collection, mainly differentiated by geographical origin and spike row number (an inflorescence architecture trait). Different patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD) were found across the barley genome and many regions of high LD contained traits involved in domestication and breeding selection. The genotype data were used to define ‘mini-core’ sets of accessions capturing the majority of the allelic diversity present in the core collection. These ‘mini-core’ sets can be used for evaluating traits that are difficult or expensive to score. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of ‘hull cover’, ‘spike row number’, and ‘heading date’ demonstrate the utility of the core collection for locating genetic factors determining important phenotypes. The GWAS results were referenced to a new barley consensus map containing 5,665 SNPs. Our results demonstrate that GWAS and high-density SNP genotyping are effective tools for plant breeders interested in accessing genetic diversity in large germplasm collections.