The effects of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry6A on the survival, growth, reproduction, locomotion, and behavioral response of Caenorhabditis elegans

Several families of crystal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis exhibit nematicidal activity. Cry5B protein, a pore-forming toxin, has been intensively studied yielding many insights into the mode of action of crystal protein at molecular level and pathogenesis of pore-forming toxins. However, little attention was paid to Cry6A, another representative nematicidal crystal protein. Cry6A shares very low homology with Cry5B at amino acid sequence and probably acts in a distinct pathway from Cry5B and even the other main commercial crystal proteins. In the current study, we comprehensively investigated the nematicidal properties of Cry6Aa2 against the free-living soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and examined the physical response of C. elegans to Cry6Aa2 attack. Our results indicate that Cry6Aa2 exhibits high lethal activity to C. elegans and could cause detrimental effects on C. elegans, including obviously suppressed growth, decreased brood size, and even abnormal motility. Meanwhile, our study additionally shows that C. elegans could defend against the Cry6Aa2 toxin harmful threat through behavioral defense responses, such as reduced oral uptake and physical avoidance. In general, this study suggests that Cry6Aa2 possesses diverse nematicidal properties, which strongly indicates that Cry6Aa2 is a promising potential candidate of nematicidal agent. Moreover, this study highlights the importance of behavioral responses in defense of C. elegans for survival and demonstrates the key role of crystal protein in the interaction of B. thuringiensis–C. elegans. These findings could shed light on understanding the interaction of C. elegans with B. thuringiensis and provide a perfect model to study the role of pathogenic factor in the interaction of pathogen–host.     

Choice of Allocations and Constructs for Attributional or Consequential Life Cycle Assessment and Input‐Output Analysis

The divide between attributional and consequential research perspectives partly overlaps with the long‐standing methodological discussions in the life cycle assessment (LCA) and input‐output analysis (IO) research communities on the choice of techniques and models for dealing with situations of coproduction. The recent harmonization of LCA allocations and IO constructs revealed a more diverse set of coproduction models than had previously been understood. This increased flexibility and transparency in inventory modeling warrants a re‐evaluation of the treatment of coproduction in analyses with attributional and consequential perspectives. In the present article, the main types of coproductions situations and of coproduction models are reviewed, along with key desirable characteristics of attributional and consequential studies. A concordance analysis leads to clear recommendations, which call for important refinements to current guidelines for both LCA/IO practitioners and database developers. We notably challenge the simple association between, on the one hand, attributional LCA and partition allocation, and on the one hand, consequential LCA and substitution modeling.     

基因治疗与人类健康

随着分子生物学及基因工程技术的迅猛发展 ,基因治疗已经成为治疗人类疾病的重要方法之一 ,同时也是维护人类健康最有发展前景的手段之一。诸如遗传病、肿瘤、和传染病与心血管病的基因治疗。遗传免疫方面 ,病毒性疾病和肿瘤的基因治疗 ,如将病毒抗原基因 (HBsAg)及一些肿瘤抗原基因 (CEA)直接注入人体内而产生抗体 ;人类亚健康状态 ,如肥胖、秃顶、疲劳、衰老等的基因治疗。然而基因治疗目前仍面临着许多困扰 ,如基因治疗的有效性、安全性、及社会伦理等诸多问题 ,因此在临床实际应用中要慎之又慎。只有对基因治疗合理规范和正确引导并遵循伦理原则 ,才能最终推动现代医学的发展。     

沼渣与化肥配合施用对温室番茄生长发育、产量及品质的影响

采用随机区组试验设计,研究了沼渣与化肥配合施用对番茄生长发育、产量和品质的影响.结果表明:沼渣与化肥配合施用有利于番茄生长发育,其中60%沼渣+40%化肥处理的植株生长发育状况良好,产量高于其他处理;60%沼渣+40%化肥处理果实Vc含量为91.09 mg.kg-1,比对照高21.32 mg.kg-1,总糖含量比对照高2.13%,果实品质有明显改善.在试验组合中,60%沼渣与40%化肥配合施用为设施番茄的最佳配比.     

宁夏盐池荒漠草原植被的数量分类和排序

为检验荒漠草原封育恢复的效果,对宁夏盐池围封9年的退化草场进行了植被调查,共记录34个物种,分属于12个科、27个属,其中豆科(9种)、禾本科(7种)、菊科(6种)所含物种数较多.与封育前相比,物种组成基本相同,常见种和建群种发生了明显变化.采用PCA排序和分层聚类将80个样方分为长芒草、白草、赖草3个群系,依据建群种或优势种的生物学特性将其生境划分为旱生生境、中生生境和轻度盐渍化生境.3个群系的演替速率不同,其中长芒草群系演替进入反应阶段,赖草群系的演替等级相对较高.群系间存在激烈的资源竞争关系,风蚀能够促进赖草群系的进一步扩大.建议通过划区轮牧的方式合理调控长芒草群系和赖草群系的放牧时期,以提高草场的放牧利用价值,降低赖草群系的扩张危险.     

StructureSelector: A web‐based software to select and visualize the optimal number of clusters using multiple methods

Inferences of population genetic structure are of great importance to the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology. The program structure has been widely used to infer population genetic structure. However, previous studies demonstrated that uneven sampling often leads to wrong inferences on hierarchical structure. The most widely used ΔK method tends to identify the uppermost hierarchy of population structure. Recently, four alternative statistics (medmedk , medmeak , maxmedk and maxmeak ) were proposed, which appear to be more accurate than the previously used methods for both even and uneven sampling data. However, the lack of easy‐to‐use software limits the use of these appealing new estimators. Here, we developed a web‐based user‐friendly software structureselector to calculate the four appealing alternative statistics together with the commonly used Ln Pr(X|K) and ΔK statistics. structureselector accepts the result files of structure , admixture or faststructure as input files. It reports the “best” K for each estimator, and the results are available as HTML or tab separated tables. The program can also generate graphical representations for specific K, which can be easily downloaded from the server. The software is freely available at http://lmme.qdio.ac.cn/StructureSelector/ .     

A synthesis of methane emissions from 71 northern,temperate, and subtropical wetlands

Wetlands are the largest natural source of atmospheric methane. Here, we assess controls on methane flux using a database of approximately 19 000 instantaneous measurements from 71 wetland sites located across subtropical, temperate, and northern high latitude regions. Our analyses confirm general controls on wetland methane emissions from soil temperature, water table, and vegetation, but also show that these relationships are modified depending on wetland type (bog, fen, or swamp), region (subarctic to temperate), and disturbance. Fen methane flux was more sensitive to vegetation and less sensitive to temperature than bog or swamp fluxes. The optimal water table for methane flux was consistently below the peat surface in bogs, close to the peat surface in poor fens, and above the peat surface in rich fens. However, the largest flux in bogs occurred when dry 30‐day averaged antecedent conditions were followed by wet conditions, while in fens and swamps, the largest flux occurred when both 30‐day averaged antecedent and current conditions were wet. Drained wetlands exhibited distinct characteristics, e.g. the absence of large flux following wet and warm conditions, suggesting that the same functional relationships between methane flux and environmental conditions cannot be used across pristine and disturbed wetlands. Together, our results suggest that water table and temperature are dominant controls on methane flux in pristine bogs and swamps, while other processes, such as vascular transport in pristine fens, have the potential to partially override the effect of these controls in other wetland types. Because wetland types vary in methane emissions and have distinct controls, these ecosystems need to be considered separately to yield reliable estimates of global wetland methane release.     

Characterization of Lipids and Proteins Associated to the Cell Wall of the Acapsular Mutant Cryptococcus neoformans Cap 67

Cryptococcus neoformans is an opportunistic human pathogen that causes life‐threatening meningitis. In this fungus, the cell wall is exceptionally not the outermost structure due to the presence of a surrounding polysaccharide capsule, which has been highly studied. Considering that there is little information about C. neoformans cell wall composition, we aimed at describing proteins and lipids extractable from this organelle, using as model the acapsular mutant C. neoformans cap 67. Purified cell wall preparations were extracted with either chloroform/methanol or hot sodium dodecyl sulfate. Total lipids fractionated in silica gel 60 were analyzed by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI‐MS/MS), while trypsin digested proteins were analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC‐MS/MS). We detected 25 phospholipid species among phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylinositol, and phosphatidic acid. Two glycolipid species were identified as monohexosyl ceramides. We identified 192 noncovalently linked proteins belonging to different metabolic processes. Most proteins were classified as secretory, mainly via nonclassical mechanisms, suggesting a role for extracellular vesicles (EV) in transwall transportation. In concert with that, orthologs from 86% of these proteins have previously been reported both in fungal cell wall and/or in EV. The possible role of the presently described structures in fungal–host relationship is discussed.     

The Role of Electron Affinity in Determining Whether Fullerenes Catalyze or Inhibit Photooxidation of Polymers for Solar Cells

Understanding the stability and degradation mechanisms of organic solar materials is critically important to achieving long device lifetimes. Here, an investigation of the photodegradation of polymer:fullerene blend films exposed to ambient conditions for a variety of polymer and fullerene derivative combinations is presented. Despite the wide range in polymer stabilities to photodegradation, the rate of irreversible polymer photobleaching in blend films is found to consistently and dramatically increase with decreasing electron affinity of the fullerene derivative. Furthermore, blends containing fullerenes with the smallest electron affinities photobleached at a faster rate than films of the pure polymer. These observations can be explained by a mechanism where both the polymer and fullerene donate photogenerated electrons to diatomic oxygen to form the superoxide radical anion which degrades the polymer.