Within-season flowering interruptions are common in the water-limited Sky Islands

Within-season breaks in flowering have been reported in a wide range of highly variable ecosystems including deserts, tropical forests and high-elevation meadows. A tendency for interruptions in flowering has also been documented in southwestern US “Sky Island” plant communities, which encompass xeric to mesic conditions. Seasonal breaks in flowering have implications for plant reproductive success, population structure, and gene flow as well as resource availability for pollinators and dependent animals. Most reports of multiple within-season flowering events describe only two distinct flowering episodes. In this study, we set out to better quantify distinct within-season flowering events in highly variable Sky Islands plant communities. Across a >1,200 m elevation gradient, we documented a strong tendency for multiple within-season flowering events. In both distinct spring and summer seasons, we observed greater than two distinct within-season flowering in more than 10 % of instances. Patterns were clearly mediated by the different climate factors at work in the two seasons. The spring season, which is influenced by both temperature and precipitation, showed a mixed response, with the greatest tendency for multiple flowering events occurring at mid-elevations and functional types varying in their responses across the gradient. In the summer season, during which flowering across the gradient is limited by localized precipitation, annual plants exhibited the fewest within-season flowering events and herbaceous perennial plants showed the greatest. Additionally, more distinct events occurred at lower elevations. The patterns documented here provide a baseline for comparison of system responses to changing climate conditions.     

HPLC-based Measurement of Glycated Hemoglobin using Dried Blood Spots Collected under Adverse Field Conditions

Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) measured using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) assays with venous blood and dried blood spots (DBS) are compared for 143 paired samples collected in Aceh, Indonesia. Relative to gold-standard venous-blood values, DBS-based values reported by the HPLC are systematically upward biased for HbA1c<8% and the fraction diabetic (HbA1c ≥ 6.5%) is overstated almost five-fold. Inspection of chromatograms from DBS assays indicates the % glycosylated calculated by the HPLC excludes part of the hemoglobin A which is misidentified as a hemoglobin variant. Taking this into account, unbiased DBS-based values are computed using data from the machine-generated chromatograms. When the DBS are collected in a clinic-like setting, under controlled humidity/temperature conditions, the recalculated values are almost identical to venous-based values. When DBS are collected under field conditions, the recalculated values are unbiased, but only about half the HbA1c values are measured reliably, calling into question the validity of the other half. The results suggest that collection conditions, particularly humidity, affect the quality of the DBS-based measures. Cross-validating DBS-based HbA1c values with venous samples collected under exactly the same environmental conditions is a prudent investment in population-based studies.     

Proteomic Analysis of the Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush) Liver Identifies Proteins from Evolutionarily Close and ‐Distant Fish Relatives

Lake trout are used as bioindicators for toxics exposure in the Great Lakes ecosystem. Here the first lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) liver proteomics study is performed and searched against specific databases: (NCBI and UniProtKB) Salvelinus, Salmonidae, Actinopterygii, and Oncorhynchus mykiss, and the more distant relative, Danio rerio. In the biological replicate 1 (BR1), technical replicate 1 (TR1), (BR1TR1), a large number of lake trout liver proteins are not in the Salvelinus protein database, suggesting that lake trout liver proteins have homology to some proteins from the Salmonidae family and Actinopterygii class, and to Oncorhynchus mykiss and Danio rerio, two more highly studied fish. In the NCBI search, 4194 proteins are identified: 3069 proteins in Actinopterygii, 1617 in Salmonidae, 68 in Salvelinus, 568 in Oncorhynchus mykiss, and 946 in Danio rerio protein databases. Similar results are observed in the UniProtKB searches of BR1RT1, as well as in a technical replicate (BR1TR2), and then in a second biological replicate experiment, with two technical replicates (BR2TR1 and BR2TR2). This study opens the possibility of identifying evolutionary relationships (i.e., adaptive mutations) between various groups (i.e., zebrafish, rainbow trout, Salmonidae, Salvelinus and lake trout) through evolutionary proteomics. Data are available via the PRIDE Q2 (PXD011924).     

Validation of Blood-Based Assays Using Dried Blood Spots for Use in Large Population Studies

Assessment of health in large population studies has increasingly incorporated measures of blood-based biomarkers based on the use of dried blood spots (DBS). The validity of DBS assessments made by labs used by large studies is addressed by comparing assay values from DBS collected using conditions similar to those used in the field with values from whole blood samples. The DBS approach generates values that are strongly related to whole blood levels of HbA1c, cystatin C, and C-reactive protein. Assessing lipid levels reliably with DBS appears to be a greater challenge. However, even when DBS values and values from venous blood are highly correlated, they are often on a different scale, and using conventional cutoffs may be misleading.