Mineral Elements of Subtropical Tree Seedlings in Response to Elevated Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen Addition

Mineral elements in plants have been strongly affected by increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations and nitrogen (N) deposition due to human activities. However, such understanding is largely limited to N and phosphorus in grassland. Using open-top chambers, we examined the concentrations of potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), aluminum (Al), copper (Cu) and manganese (Mn) in the leaves and roots of the seedlings of five subtropical tree species in response to elevated CO₂ (ca. 700 μmol CO₂ mol^-1) and N addition (100 kg N ha^-1 yr^-1) from 2005 to 2009. These mineral elements in the roots responded more strongly to elevated CO₂ and N addition than those in the leaves. Elevated CO₂ did not consistently decrease the concentrations of plant mineral elements, with increases in K, Al, Cu and Mn in some tree species. N addition decreased K and had no influence on Cu in the five tree species. Given the shifts in plant mineral elements, Schima superba and Castanopsis hystrix were less responsive to elevated CO₂ and N addition alone, respectively. Our results indicate that plant stoichiometry would be altered by increasing CO₂ and N deposition, and K would likely become a limiting nutrient under increasing N deposition in subtropics.     

社会等级研究现状及存在的问题

对国内外有关社会等级形成原因、表现形式及功能的研究进行了综述。目前,多数对社会等级的研究集中在社会等级的表现形式和功能2个方面,而对社会等级形成原因的了解比较少,今后应加强此方面的研究,有利于对社会等级进化意义的深入理解。     

Genetic analysis of IREB2, FAM13A and XRCC5 variants in Chinese Han patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Recently, variants (rs2568494, rs2869967 and rs3821104) in the IREB2, FAM13A and XRCC5 genes were found to be associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in non-Asian populations by genome-wide association study (GWAS) analysis. To evaluate whether variants in these genes are related to COPD in Chinese Han population, we investigated COPD patients of Chinese Han ethnicity from Mainland China. Significant differences in genotypic distributions (χ² = 6.319, p = 0.042 for rs2869967; χ² = 6.062, p = 0.048 for rs3821104) and allele distributions (χ² = 4.014, p = 0.045 for rs2869967; χ² = 5.607, p = 0.018 for rs3821104) were observed between patients and control subjects for variants rs2869967 and rs3821104, whereas no statistically significant associations for genotypic and allelic distribution between IREB2 rs2568494 and COPD phenotype (p > 0.05) were identified. Our results support that FAM13A rs2869967 and XRCC5 rs3821104 are associated with COPD in Chinese Han population.     

Cloning and characterization of an mRNA encoding a novel G protein alpha-subunit abundant in mantle and gill of pearl oyster Pinctada fucata

Nacre formation is an ideal model to study biomineralization processes. Although much has been done about biomineralization mechanism of nacre, little is known as to how cellular signaling regulates this process. We are interested in whether G protein signaling plays a role in mineralization. Degenerate primers against conserved amino acid regions of G proteins were employed to amplify cDNA from the pearl oyster Pinctada fucata. As a result, the cDNA encoding a novel G(s)alpha (pfG(s)alpha) from the pearl oyster was isolated. The G(s)alpha cDNA encodes a polypeptide of 377 amino acid residues, which shares high similarity to the octopus (Octopus vulgaris) G(s)alpha. The well-conserved A, C, G (switch I), switch II functional domains and the carboxyl terminus that is a critical site for interaction with receptors are completely identical to those from other mollusks. However, pfG(s)alpha has a unique amino acid sequence, which encodes switch III and interaction sites of adenylyl cyclase respectively. In situ hybridization and Northern blotting analysis revealed that the oyster G(s)alpha mRNA is widely expressed in a variety of tissues, with highest levels in the outer fold of mantle and epithelia of gill, the regions essential for biomineralization. We also show that overexpression of the pfG(s)alpha in mammalian MC3T3-E1 cells resulted in increased cAMP levels. Mutant pfG(s)alpha that has impaired CTX substrate diminished its ability to induce cAMP production. Furthermore, the alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, an indicator for mineralization, is induced by the G(s)alpha in MC3T3-E1 cells. These results indicated that G(s)alpha may be involved in regulation of physiological function, particularly in biological biomineralization.