Microbial diversity and complexity in hypersaline environments: A preliminary assessment

The microbial communities in solar salterns and a soda lake have been characterized using two techniques: BIOLOG, to estimate the metabolic potential, and amplicon length heterogeneity analysis, to estimate the molecular diversity of these communities. Both techniques demonstrated that the halophilic Bacteria and halophilic Archaea populations in the Eilat, Israel saltern are dynamic communities with extensive metabolic potentials and changing community structures. Halophilic Bacteria were detected in Mono Lake and the lower salinity ponds at the Shark Bay saltern in Western Australia, except when the crystallizer samples were stressed by exposure to Acid Green Dye #9899. At Shark Bay, halophilic Archaea were found only in the crystallizer samples. These data confirm both the metabolic diversity and the phylogenetic complexity of the microbial communities and assert the need to develop more versatile media for the cultivation of the diversity of bacteria in hypersaline environments. Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology (2002) 28, 48–55 DOI: 10.1038/sj/jim/7000175 Received 20 May 2001/ Accepted in revised form 15 June 2001     

The relation between visual acuity and brightness discrimination

1. Visual acuity depends on the brightness contrast between test object and background; and conversely, brightness discrimination depends on the target size. Both functions vary with the brightness of the background. Measurements with rectangular targets of length-width ratio 2 were made over a range of sizes, contrasts, and brightnesses sufficient to determine the relations among these three variables. The rectangles were from 2' to 50' wide; the contrast fraction, DeltaI/I, ranged from 0.01 to 40; the background brightness varied from 0.0001 to 2500 millilamberts. 2. When DeltaI/I or visual acuity is plotted as a function of brightness the data do, in general, follow Hecht's equation. The departure from a simple photochemical theory which the larger targets show is probably due to changes in the functional retinal mosaic with changing brightness. 3. In general also, the relation between visual acuity and brightness, at selected contrasts, fits Hecht's derivation. At low contrasts, as the brightness is reduced a point is reached at which the test object becomes invisible at any size. 4. No simple relation emerges from the data relating visual acuity to contrast, at set levels of illumination. Over only a very short range are visual acuity and contrast directly related. At high contrasts, visual acuity reaches a maximum, whereas at low visual acuity, DeltaI/I reaches a minimum which cannot be passed regardless of size. 5. The shape of the curves relating DeltaI/I to brightness is not significantly altered by changing the exposure time. There is some evidence to show that a 3 second exposure of the target is equivalent to two looks of 0.2 second each. 6. In all these studies the thresholds were determined by a frequency of seeing method, and the data have been considered in terms of a quantum theory of threshold seeing. It was found that a threshold response involves between four and eight independent critical events, which are largely independent of size, brightness, and criterion of seeing.     

Molecular population genetics of the alcohol dehydrogenase locus in the Hawaiian drosophilid D. mimica

Sequence variation among 10 alleles of the alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) gene of the Hawaiian drosophilid D. mimica was analyzed with reference to the evolutionary history of the Hawaiian subgroup as well as to levels and patterns of polymorphism of the Adh gene in continental drosophilid species. The Adh gene of D. mimica is less polymorphic than that of other drosophilid species, and no replacement substitutions were found. Statistical analyses of the Adh alleles suggested the action of balancing selection and revealed significant linkage disequilibrium among three of the variable sites. The effective population size was estimated to be only slightly smaller than that of continental species and, surprisingly, on the same order of magnitude as the actual size.      

Bacterioplankton Dynamics in the McMurdo Dry Valley Lakes, Antarctica: Production and Biomass Loss over Four Seasons

Abstract Research of the microbial ecology of McMurdo Dry Valley lakes has concentrated primarily on phototrophs; relatively little is known about the heterotrophic bacterioplankton. Bacteria represent a substantial proportion of water column biomass in these lakes, comprising 30 to 60% of total microplankton biomass. Bacterial production and cell numbers were measured 3 to 5 times, within four Antarctic seasons (October to January), in Lakes Fryxell, Hoare, and Bonney. The winter-spring transition (September to October) was included during one year. Lake Fryxell was the most productive, but variable, lake, followed by Lakes Bonney and Hoare. Bacterial production ranged from 0 to 0.009 μg C ml-1 d-1; bacterial populations ranged from 3.2 x 10(4) to 4.4 x 10(7) cells ml-1. Bacterial production was always greatest just below the ice cover at the beginning of the season. A second maximum developed just above the chemocline of all the lakes, as the season progressed. Total bacterioplankton biomass in the lakes decreased as much as 88% between successive sampling dates in the summer, as evidenced by areal integration of bacterial populations; the largest decreases in biomass typically occurred in mid-December. A forward difference model of bacterial loss in the trophogenic zone and the entire water column of these lakes showed that loss rates in the summer reached 6.3 x 10(14) cells m-2 d-1 and 4.16 x 10(12) cells m-2 d-1, respectively. These results imply that bacteria may be a source of carbon to higher trophic levels in these lakes, through grazing.     

拐芹根化学成分研究Ⅱ

从伞型科当归属植物拐芹(Angelica polymorpha Maxim)的根及根茎中又分得4个结晶性化合物。经物理常数测定、光谱分析,分别鉴定为欧前胡素Ⅰ,异氧化前胡内酯Ⅱ,Pabulenol Ⅲ,Phellopterin Ⅳ。