Ecological selection of siderophore‐producing microbial taxa in response to heavy metal contamination

Some microbial public goods can provide both individual and community‐wide benefits, and are open to exploitation by non‐producing species. One such example is the production of metal‐detoxifying siderophores. Here, we investigate whether conflicting selection pressures on siderophore production by heavy metals – a detoxifying effect of siderophores, and exploitation of this detoxifying effect – result in a net increase or decrease. We show that the proportion of siderophore‐producing taxa increases along a natural heavy metal gradient. A causal link between metal contamination and siderophore production was subsequently demonstrated in a microcosm experiment in compost, in which we observed changes in community composition towards taxa that produce relatively more siderophores following copper contamination. We confirmed the selective benefit of siderophores by showing that taxa producing large amounts of siderophore suffered less growth inhibition in toxic copper. Our results suggest that ecological selection will favour siderophore‐mediated decontamination, with important consequences for potential remediation strategies.     

Epiboly connected with cleavage in morula and early blastula stages of Xenopus laevis,a study using time-lapse photography

Summary Measurements were made of the external surface areas occupied by animal and vegetal blastomeres and their daughter cells at successive cleavage cycles in 15 embyros of Xenopus laevis. On the animal side, after each cleavage a general area increase (epiboly) occurs from cycle 4 (16-cell stage, stage 5) to cycle 10 (stage 8 1/2), while on the vegetal side there is a slight general area decrease after each cleavage from cycle 6 to cycle 10. The comparison between the external surface areas of individual animal blastomeres and those of their daughter cells, visible at the next cycle, shows a significantly larger increase after radial than after tangential cleavage, a difference that may be connected with the insertion of new membrane into the external surface at radial cleavage.     

High genetic and physiological diversity of sulfate-reducing bacteria isolated from an oligotrophic lake sediment

The community structure of sulfate-reducing bacteria in littoral and profundal sediments of the oligotrophic Lake Stechlin (Germany) was investigated. A collection of 32 strains was isolated from the highest positive dilutions of most-probable-number series, and their partial 16S rRNA gene sequences and genomic fingerprints based on ERIC (enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus)-PCR were analyzed. The strains fell into eight distinct phylogenetic lineages, and the majority (70%) showed a close affiliation to the genus Desulfovibrio. Most of the remaining strains (22%) were related to the gram-positive Sporomusa and Desulfotomaculum groups. A high redundancy of 16S rRNA gene sequences was found within several of the phylogenetic lineages. This low phylogenetic diversity was most pronounced for the subset of strains isolated from oxic sediment layers. ERIC-PCR revealed that most of the strains with identical 16S rRNA gene sequences were genetically different. Since strains with identical 16S rRNA gene sequences but different genomic fingerprints also differed considerably with respect to their physiological capabilities, the high diversity detected in the present work is very likely of ecological relevance. Our results indicate that a high diversity of sulfate-reducing bacterial strains can be recovered from the natural environment using the established cultivation media. Received: 20 April 1998 / Accepted: 12 June 1998     

Vertical distribution of denitrification in an estuarine sediment: integrating sediment flowthrough reactor experiments and microprofiling via reactive transport modeling

Denitrifying activity in a sediment from the freshwater part of a polluted estuary in northwest Europe was quantified using two independent approaches. High-resolution N(2)O microprofiles were recorded in sediment cores to which acetylene was added to the overlying water and injected laterally into the sediment. The vertical distribution of the rate of denitrification supported by nitrate uptake from the overlying water was then derived from the time series N(2)O concentration profiles. The rates obtained for the core incubations were compared to the rates predicted by a forward reactive transport model, which included rate expression for denitrification calibrated with potential rate measurements obtained in flowthrough reactors containing undisturbed, 1-cm-thick sediment slices. The two approaches yielded comparable rate profiles, with a near-surface, 2- to 3-mm narrow zone of denitrification and maximum in situ rates on the order of 200 to 300 nmol cm(-3) h(-1). The maximum in situ rates were about twofold lower than the maximum potential rate for the 0- to 1-cm depth interval of the sediment, indicating that in situ denitrification was nitrate limited. The experimentally and model-derived rates of denitrification implied that there was nitrate uptake by the sediment at a rate that was on the order of 50 (+/- 10) nmol cm(-2) h(-1), which agreed well with direct nitrate flux measurements for core incubations. Reactive transport model calculations showed that benthic uptake of nitrate at the site is particularly sensitive to the nitrate concentration in the overlying water and the maximum potential rate of denitrification in the sediment.     

Life-history variation in contrasting habitats: flowering decisions in a clonal perennial herb (Veratrum album)

Quantifying intraspecific demographic variation provides a powerful tool for exploring the diversity and evolution of life histories. We investigate how habitat-specific demographic variation and the production of multiple offspring types affect the population dynamics and evolution of delayed reproduction in a clonal perennial herb with monocarpic ramets (white hellebore). In this species, flowering ramets produce both seeds and asexual offspring. Data on ramet demography are used to parameterize integral projection models, which allow the effects of habitat-specific demographic variation and reproductive mode on population dynamics to be quantified. We then use the evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) approach to predict the flowering strategy-the relationship between flowering probability and size. This approach is extended to allow offspring types to have different demographies and density-dependent responses. Our results demonstrate that the evolutionarily stable flowering strategies differ substantially among habitats and are in excellent agreement with the observed strategies. Reproductive mode, however, has little effect on the ESSs. Using analytical approximations, we show that flowering decisions are predominantly determined by the asymptotic size of individuals rather than variation in survival or size-fecundity relationships. We conclude that habitat is an important aspect of the selective environment and a significant factor in predicting the ESSs.     

Sulfadiazine/hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin host-guest system: Characterization, phase-solubility and molecular modeling

In this work we prepared and characterized an inclusion complex of the dihydropteroate synthase inhibitor sulfadiazine (SDZ) in 2-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HPBCD). From the phase-solubility diagram we observed an increase in the water solubility of the drug, calculating a binding constant of 1879M(-1). The inclusion mode involves a NH(2)-in orientation of the drug in the HPBCD cavity, according to the 2D NMR (ROESY) data and confirmed by molecular modeling using the semiempirical PM6 and RM1 methods.     

Studies of in vitro cultivated cells from the smooth muscle organs. 3. Effectiveness of some drugs on pulsation frequency of isolated smooth muscle cells of the chicken amnion]

The effects of some drugs on the beating frequency of isolated cells of the chick amnion cultivated on cover slips were investigated. Cholinergic and adrenergic agonists and antagonists, serotonine, antispasmodics, coronary dilatants and local anesthetics influenced the beating frequency significantly. The isolated chick amnion cells equal in their pharmacological behaviour the intact chick amnion and smooth muscle cells of mammals but differ from isolated beating heart cells.     

The direction of cleavage waves and the regional variation in the duration of cleavage cycles on the dorsal side of the Xenopus laevis blastula

Summary The animal and the dorsal side of five embryos of Xenopus laevis were studied in detail from the 7th to the 13th cleavage by means of time-lapse cinematography. At each cleavage the regionally ordered sequence of blastomere divisions is visible in the films as a cleavage wave, propagating about three times slower in the dorsal than in the animal view. In the dorsal view the waves run in an animal-vegetal direction, initially with a left-to-right deviation and in later cleavages converging on the region of the future blastopore. The lengthening of cleavage cycles begins at cycle 8 on the dorsal side, just above the future blastopore. From cycle 9 to 11 nearly equal lengthening occurs in each cycle at all animal-vegetal levels. In general, cycles lengthen a little more in median than in lateral sectors and a little more in right than in left sectors. Cycle 12 is longest in the sector above the future blastopore and shortest in the animal region. The results show that the initial pattern of a regionally ordered sequence of cleavage cycles of equal duration changes into a pattern of cycles of different durations as a result of gradual cycle lengthening, starting in the region just above the future blastopore and spreading in animal direction. The results are compared with data on the cleavage cycles of isolated blastomeres, and the possible relation with the induction of the mesoendoderm occurring during the stages studied is discussed.     

Host population bottlenecks drive parasite extinction during antagonistic coevolution

Host–parasite interactions are often characterized by large fluctuations in host population size, and we investigated how such host bottlenecks affected coevolution between a bacterium and a virus. Previous theory suggests that host bottlenecks should provide parasites with an evolutionary advantage, but instead we found that phages were rapidly driven to extinction when coevolving with hosts exposed to large genetic bottlenecks. This was caused by the stochastic loss of sensitive bacteria, which are required for phage persistence and infectivity evolution. Our findings emphasize the importance of feedbacks between ecological and coevolutionary dynamics, and how this feedback can qualitatively alter coevolutionary dynamics.     

Vertical Distribution of Denitrification in an Estuarine Sediment: Integrating Sediment Flowthrough Reactor Experiments and Microprofiling via Reactive Transport Modeling

Denitrifying activity in a sediment from the freshwater part of a polluted estuary in northwest Europe was quantified using two independent approaches. High-resolution N₂O microprofiles were recorded in sediment cores to which acetylene was added to the overlying water and injected laterally into the sediment. The vertical distribution of the rate of denitrification supported by nitrate uptake from the overlying water was then derived from the time series N₂O concentration profiles. The rates obtained for the core incubations were compared to the rates predicted by a forward reactive transport model, which included rate expression for denitrification calibrated with potential rate measurements obtained in flowthrough reactors containing undisturbed, 1-cm-thick sediment slices. The two approaches yielded comparable rate profiles, with a near-surface, 2- to 3-mm narrow zone of denitrification and maximum in situ rates on the order of 200 to 300 nmol cm⁻³ h⁻¹. The maximum in situ rates were about twofold lower than the maximum potential rate for the 0- to 1-cm depth interval of the sediment, indicating that in situ denitrification was nitrate limited. The experimentally and model-derived rates of denitrification implied that there was nitrate uptake by the sediment at a rate that was on the order of 50 (± 10) nmol cm⁻² h⁻¹, which agreed well with direct nitrate flux measurements for core incubations. Reactive transport model calculations showed that benthic uptake of nitrate at the site is particularly sensitive to the nitrate concentration in the overlying water and the maximum potential rate of denitrification in the sediment.