Drivers of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bromus tectorum</Emphasis> Abundance in the Western North American Sagebrush Steppe

Bromus tectorum can transform ecosystems causing negative impacts on the ecological and economic values of sagebrush steppe of the western USA. Although our knowledge of the drivers of the regional distribution of B. tectorum has improved, we have yet to determine the relative importance of climate and local factors causing B. tectorum abundance and impact. To address this, we sampled 555 sites distributed geographically and ecologically throughout the sagebrush steppe. We recorded the canopy cover of B. tectorum, as well as local substrate and vegetation characteristics. Boosted regression tree modeling revealed that climate strongly limits the transformative ability of B. tectorum to a portion of the sagebrush steppe with dry summers (that is, July precipitation <10 mm and the driest annual quarter associated with a mean temperature >15°C) and low native grass canopy cover. This portion includes the Bonneville, Columbia, Lahontan, and lower Snake River basins. These areas are likely to require extreme efforts to reverse B. tectorum transformation. Our predictions, using future climate conditions, suggest that the transformative ability of B. tectorum may not expand geographically and could remain within the same climatically suitable basins. We found B. tectorum in locally disturbed areas within or adjacent to all of our sample sites, but not necessarily within sagebrush steppe vegetation. Conversion of the sagebrush steppe by B. tectorum, therefore, is more likely to occur outside the confines of its current climatically optimal region because of site-specific disturbances, including invasive species control efforts and sagebrush steppe mismanagement, rather than climate change.     

How well is current plant trait composition predicted by modern and historical forest spatial configuration?

There is increasing evidence to suggest that a delayed response of many forest species to habitat loss and fragmentation leads to the development of extinction debts and immigration credits in affected forest habitat. These time lags result in plant communities which are not well predicted by present day landscape structure, reducing the accuracy of biodiversity assessments and predictions for future change. Here, species richness data and mean values for five life history characteristics within deciduous broadleaved forest habitat across Great Britain were used to quantify the degree to which aspects of present day forest plant composition are best explained by modern or historical forest patch area. Ancient forest specialist richness, mean rarity and mean seed terminal velocity were not well predicted by modern patch area, implying the existence of a degree of lag in British forest patches. Mean seedbank persistence values were more closely related to modern patch area than historical, particularly in larger patches. The variation in response for different mean trait values suggests that species respond to landscape change at different rates depending upon their combinations of different trait states. Current forest understorey communities are therefore likely to consist of a mixture of declining species whose extinction debt is still to be paid, and faster colonising immigrant species. These results indicate that without management action, rare and threatened species of plant are likely to be lost in the future as a result of changes in forest spatial configuration that have already taken place. The lag seen here for rare specialist plants suggests however that there may still be scope to protect such species before they are lost from forest patches.     

Protein partners in the life history of activated fibroblast growth factor receptors

Fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFRs) are a family of four transmembrane (TM) receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) which bind to a large family of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) ligands with varying affinity and specificity. FGFR signaling regulates many physiological and pathological processes in development and tissue homeostasis. Understanding FGFR signaling processes requires the identification of partner proteins which regulate receptor function and biological outputs. In this study, we employ an epitope-tagged, covalently dimerized, and constitutively activated form of FGFR1 to identify potential protein partners by MS. By this approach, we sample candidate FGFR effectors throughout the life history of the receptor. Functional classification of the partners identified revealed specific subclasses involved in protein biosynthesis and folding; structural and regulatory components of the cytoskeleton; known signaling effectors and small GTPases implicated in endocytosis and vesicular trafficking. The kinase dependency of the interaction was determined for a subset of previously unrecognized partners by coimmunoprecipitation, Western blotting, and immunocytochemistry. From this group, the small GTPase Rab5 was selected for functional interrogation. We show that short hairpin (sh) RNA-mediated depletion of Rab5 attenuates the activation of the extracellular-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 pathway by FGFR signaling. The strategic approach adopted in this study has revealed bona fide novel effectors of the FGFR signaling pathway.     

Passive acoustic monitoring predicts daily variation in North Atlantic right whale presence and relative abundance in Roseway Basin,Canada

North Atlantic right whale monitoring in Roseway Basin, Canada, is primarily based on short‐term (<14 d) visual surveys conducted during August–September. Variability in survey effort has been the biggest limiting factor to studying changes in the population's occurrence and habitat use. Such efforts could be enhanced considerably using passive acoustic monitoring (PAM). We sought to determine if variation in whale presence, relative abundance, demography, and/or behavior (estimated through visual surveys) could be explained by variation in three right whale call types in this habitat. A generalized linear model was fit to 23 d of concurrent PAM and visual monitoring during four summers within the Roseway Basin Right Whale Critical Habitat boundaries. The model revealed significant positive relationships between relative abundance, call counts and presence of surface‐active group behavior. PAM can refine daily right whale presence estimates. While visual observations (n = 23 d) implied a 40% decline in right whale presence during 2014–2015 relative to 2004–2005, PAM data (n = 211 d) showed right whales were present between 71%–85% of survey days throughout all years analyzed. We demonstrate that PAM is a useful tool to extend periods of right whale monitoring, especially in areas where visual monitoring efforts may be limited.     

Cell cycle and biochemical effects of PD 0183812. A potent inhibitor of the cyclin D-dependent kinases CDK4 and CDK6

Progression through the G1 phase of the cell cycle requires phosphorylation of the retinoblastoma gene product (pRb) by the cyclin D-dependent kinases CDK4 and CDK6, whose activity can specifically be blocked by the CDK inhibitor p16(INK4A). Misregulation of the pRb/cyclin D/p16(INK4A) pathway is one of the most common events in human cancer and has lead to the suggestion that inhibition of cyclin D-dependent kinase activity may have therapeutic value as an anticancer treatment. Through screening of a chemical library, we initially identified the [2,3-d]pyridopyrimidines as inhibitors of CDK4. Chemical modification resulted in the identification of PD 0183812 as a potent and highly selective inhibitor of both CDK4 and CDK6 kinase activity, which is competitive with ATP. Flow cytometry experiments showed that of the cell lines tested, only those expressing pRb demonstrated a G1 arrest when treated with PD 0183812. This arrest correlated in terms of incubation time and potency with a loss of pRb phosphorylation and a block in proliferation, which was reversible. These results suggest a potential use of this chemical class of compounds as therapeutic agents in the treatment of tumors with functional pRb, possessing cell cycle aberrations in other members of the pRb/cyclin D/p16(INK4A) pathway.     

Fiber type composition of four hindlimb muscles of adult Fisher 344 rats

 The limb and trunk muscles of adult rats express four myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms, one slow (MHCI) and three fast (MHCIIa, MHCIId, and MHCIIb). The distribution of these isoforms correlates with fiber types delineated using myofibrillar actomyosin adenosine triphosphatase (mATPase) histochemistry. For example, type I fibers express MHCI and fiber types IIA, IID, and IIB express MHCIIa, MHCIId, and MHCIIb, respectively. Fibers containing only one MHC isoform have been termed ”pure” fibers. Recent evidence suggests that a population of ”hybrid” fibers exist in rat skeletal muscle which contain two MHC isoforms. The purpose of the present investigation was to document the entire range of histochemically defined ”pure” and ”hybrid” fiber types in untreated muscles of the young adult Fisher 344 rat hindlimb. The selected hindlimb muscles (soleus, tibialis anterior, extensor digitorum longus, and gastrocnemius muscles) were removed from 12 male rats and analyzed for muscle fiber type distribution, cross-sectional area, and MHC content. Care was taken to delineate eight fiber types (I, IC, IIC, IIA, IIAD, IID, IIDB, and IIB) using refined histochemical techniques. Hybrid fibers were found to make up a considerable portion of the muscles examined (a range of 8.8–17.8% of the total). The deep red portion of the gastrocnemius muscle contained the largest number of hybrid fibers, most of which were the fast types IIAD (8.5±2.8%) and IIDB (5.2±2.3%). In conclusion, hybrid fibers make up a considerable portion of normal rat limb musculature and are an important population that should not be ignored. Accepted: 15 October 1998     

The plant cell wall. * Rose JKC, ed 2003. * Oxford: CRC Press. {pound}99.50 (hardback). * 381 pp.

Cell walls have long been recognized as important and uniquefeatures of plant cells, contributing not only to the architectureof plant organs but also to the control of growth, to the exclusionof pathogens and to the production and transmission of signallingmolecules. Gross measurements of plant cell composition establishedlong ago that the plant devotes a large