Latitudinal variation in resistance and tolerance to herbivory in the perennial herb Lythrum salicaria is related to intensity of herbivory and plant phenology

Both the length of the growing season and the intensity of herbivory often vary along climatic gradients, which may result in divergent selection on plant phenology, and on resistance and tolerance to herbivory. In Sweden, the length of the growing season and the number of insect herbivore species feeding on the perennial herb Lythrum salicaria decrease from south to north. Previous common‐garden experiments have shown that northern L. salicaria populations develop aboveground shoots earlier in the summer and finish growth before southern populations do. We tested the hypotheses that resistance and tolerance to damage vary with latitude in L. salicaria and are positively related to the intensity of herbivory in natural populations. We quantified resistance and tolerance of populations sampled along a latitudinal gradient by scoring damage from natural herbivores and fitness in a common‐garden experiment in the field and by documenting oviposition and feeding preference by specialist leaf beetles in a glasshouse experiment. Plant resistance decreased with latitude of origin, whereas plant tolerance increased. Oviposition and feeding preference in the glasshouse and leaf damage in the common‐garden experiment were negatively related to damage in the source populations. The latitudinal variation in resistance was thus consistent with reduced selection from herbivores towards the northern range margin of L. salicaria. Variation in tolerance may be related to differences in the timing of damage in relation to the seasonal pattern of plant growth, as northern genotypes have developed further than southern have when herbivores emerge in early summer.     

圈养林麝粪便类固醇激素保存时效性研究

用非损伤性采样方法对圈养林麝在三个条件:1)未处理,2)90%甲醇,3)0.9%抗生素,15个时间梯度下(20℃)的粪便中类固醇激素及其代谢物的保存时间及方法进行了比较,结果表明:林麝粪便在室温下(20℃),孕酮及其代谢物48 h有明显的上升趋势;雌二醇、睾酮和皮质醇及其代谢物在18 h均出现显著变化;对比抗生素保存,用甲醇保存是一种较好的保存林麝粪便类固醇激素的方法;然而不同激素用甲醇保存的时间不同,孕酮不宜超过1个月,皮质醇不宜超过半个月,睾酮则不宜超过10天,而雌二醇可以保存2个月之久.     

三尖杉属属名和三尖杉名称的引证错误与订正

三尖杉属(Cephalotaxus Sieb.& Zucc.)属名和三尖杉(Cephalotaxus fortunei Hook.)种名名称在文献引证时存在混乱和错误.三尖杉属属名被引证为“Cephalotaxus Sieb.& Zucc.——Gen.Pl.Suppl.2:27.1842.”和“Cephalotaxus Sieb.& Zucc.ex Endl.——Gen.Pl.Suppl.2:27.1842.”两种形式.而三尖杉的名称被引证为4种形式:①Cephalotaxus fortunei Hook.;②Cephalotaxus fortunii Hook.;③Cephalotaxus fortuni Hook.和④Cephalotaxus fortunei Hook.f..为保持分类群名称的唯一性和稳定性,经原始文献考证,以及按照国际植物命名法规(Vienna Code,2006)的有关规定,确认三尖杉属属名和三尖杉种名名称的正确引证形式应分别是:“Cephalotaxus Sieb.& Zucc.——Fl.Jap.Ⅱ.66.1870.”和“Cephalotaxus fortunei Hook.——Curtis,s Bot.Mag.76:t.4499.1850.‘fortuni’”.     

三种关于建立家兔人工气道方法的评价

目的比较关于家兔三种人工气道（artificial airway,AA）建立方法,为实验中快速建立家兔人工气道选择较好的方法提供参考。方法选用新西兰大耳白兔共30只,随机均分为3组。分别采用气管切开法、经口明视气管插管法、经口盲探气管插管法建立人工气道,比较各组建立人工气道的时间,首次成功率及并发症发生情况。结果经口盲探气管插管法建立人工气道的时间明显短于经口明视气管插管法和气管切开法,首次成功率由高到低依次是气管切开法、经口盲探气管插管法、经口明视气管插管法。经口盲探气管插管组并发症发生率最低,为（10±5）%,气管切开组和经口明视气管插管组并发症发生率分别为（20±10）%,（30±10）%。结论经口盲探气管插管是现阶段建立家兔人工气道时值得优先考虑的方法,简便易行、可操作性强,成功率高。     

Mutant huntingtin causes metabolic imbalance by disruption of hypothalamic neurocircuits

In Huntington's disease (HD), the mutant huntingtin protein is ubiquitously expressed. The disease was considered to be limited to the basal ganglia, but recent studies have suggested a more widespread pathology involving hypothalamic dysfunction. Here we tested the hypothesis that expression of mutant huntingtin in the hypothalamus causes metabolic abnormalities. First, we showed that bacterial artificial chromosome-mediated transgenic HD (BACHD) mice developed impaired glucose metabolism and pronounced insulin and leptin resistance. Selective hypothalamic expression of a short fragment of mutant huntingtin using adeno-associated viral vectors was sufficient to recapitulate these metabolic disturbances. Finally, selective hypothalamic inactivation of the mutant gene prevented the development of the metabolic phenotype in BACHD mice. Our findings establish a causal link between mutant huntingtin expression in the hypothalamus and metabolic dysfunction, and indicate that metabolic parameters are powerful readouts to assess therapies aimed at correcting dysfunction in HD by silencing huntingtin expression in the brain.     

Mitogenome rearrangement in the cold-water scleractinian coral Lophelia pertusa (Cnidaria, Anthozoa) involves a long-term evolving group I intron

Group I introns are genetic insertion elements that invade host genomes in a wide range of organisms. In metazoans, however, group I introns are extremely rare, so far only identified within mitogenomes of hexacorals and some sponges. We sequenced the complete mitogenome of the cold-water scleractinian coral Lophelia pertusa, the dominating deep sea reef-building coral species in the North Atlantic Ocean. The mitogenome (16,150 bp) has the same gene content but organized in a unique gene order compared to that of other known scleractinian corals. A complex group I intron (6460 bp) inserted in the ND5 gene (position 717) was found to host seven essential mitochondrial protein genes and one ribosomal RNA gene. Phylogenetic analysis supports a vertical inheritance pattern of the ND5-717 intron among hexacoral mitogenomes with no examples of intron loss. Structural assessments of the Lophelia intron revealed an unusual organization that lacks the universally conserved ωG at the 3′ end, as well as a highly compact RNA core structure with overlapping ribozyme and protein coding capacities. Based on phylogenetic and structural analyses we reconstructed the evolutionary history of ND5-717, from its ancestral protist origin, through intron loss in some early metazoan lineages, and into a compulsory feature with functional implications in hexacorals.