The diel activity pattern of mountain hare (Lepus timidus) on managed heather moorland in Scotland

The research presented in this paper provides an insight into the behavioral ecology of mountain hares on heather moorland in the Lammermuir Hills of southeast Scotland. We examine the seasonal and diel activity patterns using camera traps over a period of 12 months. The rate of camera detections was calculated for the different divisions of the 24‐hr cycle (daylight, dusk, night, and dawn). During autumn and winter (October–February), the activity pattern was crepuscular with greater activity at dusk than at dawn. Daylight activity was relatively low, and there was a regular pattern of small peaks of activity during the night. In spring and summer (March–September), peaks of crepuscular activity remained evident but daylight activity was much more prevalent than during autumn and winter, and night activity was lower. We discuss the problematic definition of twilight and present an explanation for seasonal changes in the pattern of diel activity that is linked to the reproductive cycle of the mountain hare.     

Multiple Syringe Inoculator for Agar Plates

The design and operation of a manually operated multiple syringe inoculator was described. Either 9 or 21 inoculations of constant volume could be made simultaneously. Up to 100 plates could be inoculated in 15 min with excellent reproducibility. No contact occurred between the inoculating needles and the agar surface. Construction was simple and inexpensive, with minimal maintenance.     

Is evolution necessary for range expansion? Manipulating reproductive timing of a weedy annual transplanted beyond its range

Ecologists often consider how environmental factors limit a species' geographic range. However, recent models suggest that geographic distribution also may be determined by a species' ability to adapt to novel environmental conditions. In this study, we empirically tested whether further evolution would be necessary for northern expansion of the weedy annual cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium) in its native North American range. We transplanted seedlings beyond the northern border and photoperiodically manipulated reproductive timing, a trait important for adaptation to shorter growing seasons at higher latitudes within the range, to determine whether further evolution of this trait would result in a phenotype viable beyond the range. Earlier reproductive induction enabled plants to produce mature seeds beyond the range and to achieve a reproductive output similar to those grown within the range. Therefore, evolution of earlier reproduction in marginal populations would be necessary for northward range expansion. This study is the first to empirically show that evolution in an ecologically important trait would enable a species to survive and reproduce beyond its current range. These results suggest that relatively few traits may limit a species' range and that identifying evolutionary constraints on such traits could be important for predicting geographic distribution.     

Panmixia: an example from Dawson's burrowing bee (Amegilla dawsoni) (Hymenoptera: Anthophorini)

Dawson's burrowing bee is a large, fast-flying solitary nesting bee endemic to the arid zone of Western Australia. In this study the population structure of the species was examined with molecular markers. Using eight microsatellite loci, we genotyped 531 adult female bees collected from 13 populations of Dawson's burrowing bee, Amegilla dawsoni, across the species range. The mean number of alleles per locus ranged from 4 to 38 and expected heterozygosity was uniformly high with a mean of 0.602. Pairwise comparisons of F(ST) among all 13 populations ranged from 0.0071 to 0.0122 with only one significant estimate and an overall F(ST) of 0.001. The entire sample collection was in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and there was no evidence of inbreeding with a mean F(IS) of 0.010. The mating and nesting behaviour of this bee suggests that gene flow would be limited by monandry and the fact that almost 90% of females mate immediately on emergence. Nevertheless there is obviously sufficient gene flow to maintain panmixia, and we suggest that this results from infrequent and unreliable rainfall in the species range, which causes the bees to congregate at limited food resources, allowing a small number of unmated females from one emergence site to come into contact with males from another population. In addition, when drought eliminates food resources near an emergence site, the whole population may move elsewhere, increasing gene flow across the species range.     

Microscopic Observation Drug Susceptibility Assay (MODS) for Early Diagnosis of Tuberculosis in Children

MODS is a novel liquid culture based technique that has been shown to be effective and rapid for early diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). We evaluated the MODS assay for diagnosis of TB in children in Viet Nam. 217 consecutive samples including sputum (n = 132), gastric fluid (n = 50), CSF (n = 32) and pleural fluid (n = 3) collected from 96 children with suspected TB, were tested by smear, MODS and MGIT. When test results were aggregated by patient, the sensitivity and specificity of smear, MGIT and MODS against “clinical diagnosis” (confirmed and probable groups) as the gold standard were 28.2% and 100%, 42.3% and 100%, 39.7% and 94.4%, respectively. The sensitivity of MGIT and MODS was not significantly different in this analysis (P = 0.5), but MGIT was more sensitive than MODS when analysed on the sample level using a marginal model (P = 0.03). The median time to detection of MODS and MGIT were 8 days and 13 days, respectively, and the time to detection was significantly shorter for MODS in samples where both tests were positive (P<0.001). An analysis of time-dependent sensitivity showed that the detection rates were significantly higher for MODS than for MGIT by day 7 or day 14 (P<0.001 and P = 0.04), respectively. MODS is a rapid and sensitive alternative method for the isolation of M.tuberculosis from children.     

Variability of gene expression profiles in human blood and lymphoblastoid cell lines

Background

Infection of plants by pathogens and the subsequent disease development involves substantial changes in the biochemistry and physiology of both partners. Analysis of genes that are expressed during these interactions represents a powerful strategy to obtain insights into the molecular events underlying these changes. We have employed expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis to identify rice genes involved in defense responses against infection by the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae and fungal genes involved in infectious growth within the host during a compatible interaction.

Results

A cDNA library was constructed with RNA from rice leaves (Oryza sativa cv. Hwacheong) infected with M. oryzae strain KJ201. To enrich for fungal genes, subtraction library using PCR-based suppression subtractive hybridization was constructed with RNA from infected rice leaves as a tester and that from uninfected rice leaves as the driver. A total of 4,148 clones from two libraries were sequenced to generate 2,302 non-redundant ESTs. Of these, 712 and 1,562 ESTs could be identified to encode fungal and rice genes, respectively. To predict gene function, Gene Ontology (GO) analysis was applied, with 31% and 32% of rice and fungal ESTs being assigned to GO terms, respectively. One hundred uniESTs were found to be specific to fungal infection EST. More than 80 full-length fungal cDNA sequences were used to validate ab initio annotated gene model of M. oryzae genome sequence.

Conclusion

This study shows the power of ESTs to refine genome annotation and functional characterization. Results of this work have advanced our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underpinning fungal-plant interactions and formed the basis for new hypothesis.