Circadian clock controlling gut-purge rhythm of the saturniidSamia cynthia ricini: its characterization and entrainment mechanism

Summary Experiments using various light-dark (LD) conditions demonstrated that an endogenous circadian clock controls gut-purge timing in the saturniid mothSamia cynthia ricini. A phase-response curve (PRC) based on the application of brief (15 min) light pulses is used to characterize the underlying pacemaking oscillation. The entrainment of the pacemaker to various LD cycles is interpreted in terms of this PRC. The effect of light immediately preceding gut purge was analyzed to account for the deviation of the actual gut-purge rhythm from the prediction made by considering only the action of the oscillation. Lack of precision in gut-purge timing in LD cycles with a very short scotophase has been explained by the failure of the oscillation in these conditions to attain the specific phase-point at which the clock information dictating gut-purge timing is released.Abbreviations AZT arbitrary Zeitgeber time - CT circadian time - PRC phase response curve     

Laboratory observations of prey behaviour for prey acquisition by a predator among three larval mosquitoes

The effect of prey behaviour on prey acquisition by a predator was examined in the laboratory, using three larval mosquitoes.Aedes albopictus was acquired by the predator,Toxorhynchites towadensis, at a higher rate thanOrthopodomiya anopheloides. Toxorphynchites towadensis was a sit-and-wait predator.Aedes albopictus was more active thanO. anopheloides. Orthopodomiya anopheloides ran away before the predator attacked, butA. albopictus did not. The escape ratio inO. anopheloides was higher than that inA. albopictus. These results suggest that the difference in the prey acquisition ratio by the predator between prey species is caused by different behavioural patterns of the prey to the predator.     

Sexual size dimorphism in the two spot ladybird beetle Adalia bipunctata: developmental mechanism and its consequences for mating

Abstract  1. The literature on ladybirds indicates that males are consistently smaller than females but take the same length of time to complete their development. Rearing Adalia bipunctata at 20 and 25 °C confirmed that protandry cannot account for sexual size dimorphism in this species, nor can a difference in egg size.
2. Female larvae consumed more food and had a higher relative growth rate in the fourth instar than did male larvae.
3. When food is limited, small males appear to be more successful at mating than are large males.
4. To account for these results, it is hypothesised that the gonads of male larvae compete more strongly with the soma for resources and that this reduces the growth potential of the soma of male larvae relative to that of female larvae. The greater mating success of small males when food is limited supports the eat or mate hypothesis, which predicts that when food is limited small males will spend less time feeding and more time mating than will large males.     

High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of α-keto acids in plasma with fluorometric detection

This paper describes a sensitive high performance liquid chromatographic method for the quantitative determination of α-keto acids in plasma using a fluorescence detector. This method is about ten times more sensitive than that reported in a previous paper. Only 50 μl of plasma are needed for the determination of α-keto acids. However, p-hydroxyphenylpyruvic acid could not be analysed because the quinoxalinol derived from it does not exhibit fluorescence.     

Vulnerability of larvae of two species of aphidophagous ladybirds, Adalia bipunctata Linnaeus and Harmonia axyridis Pallas, to cannibalism and intraguild predation

Vulnerability of larvae of two species of aphidophagous ladybirds, Adalia bipunctata Linnaeus and Harmonia axyridis Pallas, to cannibalism and intraguild predation was assessed in the laboratory. In the first experiment, a first instar of one of the two above species was kept with a fourth instar of the other species in a Petri dish. The number of times each first instar larva was encountered by the fourth instar larva and the fate of the first instar was determined over a period of 10 min. The fourth instar larvae captured and killed all the first instar larvae of their own species at the first encounter. However, when presented with fourth instar larvae of the other species the first instar larvae of A. bipunctata and H. axyridis were encountered 6.4 ± 1.3 ( n  = 10) and 19.4 ± 2.1 ( n  = 10), respectively. In this experiment no first instar larvae of H. axyridis , whereas all those of A. bipunctata , were killed.     

Synchronous Activation of Cell Division by Light or Temperature Stimuli in the Dimorphic Yeast Schizosaccharomyces japonicus

Many fungi respond to light and regulate fungal development and behavior. A blue light-activated complex has been identified in Neurospora crassa as the product of the wc-1 and wc-2 genes. Orthologs of WC-1 and WC-2 have hitherto been found only in filamentous fungi and not in yeast, with the exception of the basidiomycete pathogenic yeast Cryptococcus. Here, we report that the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces japonicus responds to blue light depending on Wcs1 and Wcs2, orthologs of components of the WC complex. Surprisingly, those of ascomycete S. japonicus are more closely related to those of the basidiomycete. S. japonicus reversibly changes from yeast to hyphae in response to environmental stresses. After incubation at 30°C, a colony of yeast was formed, and then hyphal cells extended from the periphery of the colony. When light cycles were applied, distinct dark- and bright-colored hyphal cell stripes were formed because the growing hyphal cells had synchronously activated cytokinesis. In addition, temperature cycles of 30°C for 12 h and 35°C for 12 h or of 25°C for 12 h and 30°C for 12 h during incubation in the dark induced a response in the hyphal cells similar to that of light. The stripe formation of the temperature cycles was independent of the wcs genes. Both light and temperature, which are daily external cues, have the same effect on growing hyphal cells. A dual sensing mechanism of external cues allows organisms to adapt to daily changes of environmental alteration.     

The effects of water pollution on the phylogenetic community structure of aquatic plants in the East Tiaoxi River,China

1. Water pollution is one of the most serious aquatic environmental problems worldwide. In China, recent agricultural and industrial development has resulted in rapid changes in aquatic ecosystems. Here, we reveal the effects of water pollution on the phylogenetic community structure of aquatic macrophytes in the Tiaoxi River, China.
2. We placed a rectangular plot at 47 sites within the Tiaoxi River from the mouth of the river to 88.5 km upstream, in which we recorded species abundance and measured 22 physico-chemical variables. Bayesian phylogeny using the rbcL and matK gene sequences was employed to quantify phylogenetic α- and β-diversity, and test the phylogenetic signal in four growth forms: emergent, floating-leaved, free-floating, and submerged.
3. Within communities, water contamination and phytoplankton abundance decreased species richness and phylogenetic diversity, which resulted in phylogenetic clustering; species within communities were more closely related to each other than expected. Between communities, differences in geographical distance and phytoplankton abundance resulted in phylogenetic dissimilarity among plots. Aquatic macrophytes showed phylogenetic signals in which related species responded more similarly to disturbance.
4. Thus, the observed patterns could be explained by environmental filtering and suggested that water pollution by human activity has added more filters to the existing environmental filters that drive the species assembly of macrophyte communities.

     

Zinc ions negatively regulate proapoptotic signaling in cells expressing oncogenic mutant Ras

BioMetals - Mutational activation of the Ras family of proto-oncogenes promotes cell survival and proliferation. Studies using cells cultured in vitro have shown that ectopic expression of...