Condition for the appearance of the metastable P beta' phase in fully hydrated phosphatidylcholines as studied by small-angle x-ray diffraction.

In the ripple phase of fully hydrated multilamellar vesicles of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC), two kinds of small-angle x-ray diffraction profiles are observed on cooling through the main transition. One is a seemingly normal profile similar to that observed on heating and the other is the superposition of the diffraction profiles for the primary (normal) and the secondary ripple structures. We found that the profile obtained depended on the cooling rate. Increasing the cooling rate from 0.1 degrees C/min to 1 degrees C/min caused the peaks originating from the secondary ripple structure to diminish. After a cooling scan at 43 degrees C/min, the profile became similar to that of the normal ripple structure, although a trace of the secondary ripple structure remains. The results are interpreted in terms of the rise and fall of three-dimensional correlated domains composed of both primary and secondary ripple structures. At slow cooling rates, correlated domains of both kinds of ripple structures develop. As the cooling rate is increased, the domain of the primary ripple structure remains correlated, while that of the secondary ripple structure becomes less correlated. In addition, the multipeak profile appears even at rapid cooling rates, if the final low temperature lies just below the Tm for the main transition. This results suggests that formation of the correlated domains of the secondary ripple structure requires a certain time interval during which the DPPC vesicles experience the temperature just below the main transition. The secondary ripple structure takes place in phosphatidylcholines having more than 15 carbons in each hydrocarbon chain upon cooling through the main transition.     

肝胆显像螯合物—氮基三乙酸单酰苯胺及其类似物的合成

本课题合成四个氮基三乙酸单酰苯胺(IDA)类及其类似物肝胆显像螯合物。(1)用家兔做了肝胆显像扫描实验,其显像效果较好。(2)～(3)为未见报道的化合物。     

How drought events during the last century have impacted biomass carbon in Amazonian rainforests

During the last two decades, inventory data show that droughts have reduced biomass carbon sink of the Amazon forest by causing mortality to exceed growth. However, process-based models have struggled to include drought-induced responses of growth and mortality and have not been evaluated against plot data. A process-based model, ORCHIDEE-CAN-NHA, including forest demography with tree cohorts, plant hydraulic architecture and drought-induced tree mortality, was applied over Amazonia rainforests forced by gridded climate fields and rising CO₂ from 1901 to 2019. The model reproduced the decelerating signal of net carbon sink and drought sensitivity of aboveground biomass (AGB) growth and mortality observed at forest plots across selected Amazon intact forests for 2005 and 2010. We predicted a larger mortality rate and a more negative sensitivity of the net carbon sink during the 2015/16 El Niño compared with the former droughts. 2015/16 was indeed the most severe drought since 1901 regarding both AGB loss and area experiencing a severe carbon loss. We found that even if climate change did increase mortality, elevated CO₂ contributed to balance the biomass mortality, since CO₂-induced stomatal closure reduces transpiration, thus, offsets increased transpiration from CO₂-induced higher foliage area.     

Damage to living trees contributes to almost half of the biomass losses in tropical forests

Accurate estimates of forest biomass stocks and fluxes are needed to quantify global carbon budgets and assess the response of forests to climate change. However, most forest inventories consider tree mortality as the only aboveground biomass (AGB) loss without accounting for losses via damage to living trees: branchfall, trunk breakage, and wood decay. Here, we use ~151,000 annual records of tree survival and structural completeness to compare AGB loss via damage to living trees to total AGB loss (mortality + damage) in seven tropical forests widely distributed across environmental conditions. We find that 42% (3.62 Mg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.36–5.25) of total AGB loss (8.72 Mg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹; CI 5.57–12.86) is due to damage to living trees. Total AGB loss was highly variable among forests, but these differences were mainly caused by site variability in damage-related AGB losses rather than by mortality-related AGB losses. We show that conventional forest inventories overestimate stand-level AGB stocks by 4% (1%–17% range across forests) because assume structurally complete trees, underestimate total AGB loss by 29% (6%–57% range across forests) due to overlooked damage-related AGB losses, and overestimate AGB loss via mortality by 22% (7%–80% range across forests) because of the assumption that trees are undamaged before dying. Our results indicate that forest carbon fluxes are higher than previously thought. Damage on living trees is an underappreciated component of the forest carbon cycle that is likely to become even more important as the frequency and severity of forest disturbances increase.     

Extinction risk of Chinese angiosperms varies between woody and herbaceous species

Aim

Understanding how species' traits and environmental contexts relate to extinction risk is a critical priority for ecology and conservation biology. This study aims to identify and explore factors related to extinction risk between herbaceous and woody angiosperms to facilitate more effective conservation and management strategies and understand the interactions between environmental threats and species' traits.

Location

China.

Taxon

Angiosperms.

Methods

We obtained a large dataset including five traits, six extrinsic variables, and 796,118 occurrence records for 14,888 Chinese angiosperms. We assessed the phylogenetic signal and used phylogenetic generalized least squares regressions to explore relationships between extinction risk, plant traits, and extrinsic variables in woody and herbaceous angiosperms. We also used phylogenetic path analysis to evaluate causal relationships among traits, climate variables, and extinction risk of different growth forms.

Results

The phylogenetic signal of extinction risk differed among woody and herbaceous species. Angiosperm extinction risk was mainly affected by growth form, altitude, mean annual temperature, normalized difference vegetation index, and precipitation change from 1901 to 2020. Woody species' extinction risk was strongly affected by height and precipitation, whereas extinction risk for herbaceous species was mainly affected by mean annual temperature rather than plant traits.

Main conclusions

Woody species were more likely to have higher extinction risks than herbaceous species under climate change and extinction threat levels varied with both plant traits and extrinsic variables. The relationships we uncovered may help identify and protect threatened plant species and the ecosystems that rely on them.     

崖椒茎的化学成分

从崖椒（Zanthoxglum schinifolutm Sieb.et Zucc.)茎的石油醚、二氯甲烷提取物中分离得到8个化合物。经物理常数测定及光谱（UV,IR,MS,NMR)分析鉴定其为（1）白鲜碱（dictamning),（2）茵芋碱（skimmianine),(3)滨蒿内酯（scoparone),(4)崖椒内酯（schinifolin),(5)莨菪亭（scopoletin),（6）7-羟基-8-甲氧基香豆素（7-hydroxy-8-methoxycoumarin),（7）N-甲基弗林辛（N-methylflindersine),（8）β-谷甾醇（β-sitosterol),其中化合物（5）、（6）和（7）为首次从该植物中分离。     

药用寄生植物菟丝子属,列当属和无根藤属氨基酸的分析

本文测定了菟丝子属、列当属和无根藤属某些种的种子和植株氨基酸的种类组成和含量。结果表明,3个属种子和植株氨基酸均在15种以上,且含量丰富,特别是必需氨基酸的含量较高。文中讨论了氨基酸的药用和在种子鉴定与化学分类上的作用,探讨了开发应用的前景。     

高砷含水层参与腐殖酸-铁矿物转化的关键微生物群落及其对砷迁移转化的影响

【目的】探究不同腐殖酸浓度下参与含砷水铁矿转化的微生物类群组成和丰度变化及对砷释放的影响,预测原位高砷含水层中功能微生物群参与有机质—含砷铁矿物转化过程对砷转化释放的作用。【方法】对河套平原高砷地下水和同深度高砷沉积物中的铁还原功能群落进行富集培养,构建室内厌氧微宇宙体系,将富集菌群分别加入到实验室条件下合成的不同浓度腐殖酸(0、1.5、7、14 mg C/L)-含砷水铁矿体系中,通过体系中砷、铁形态及浓度的变化分析,结合高通量测序技术、X-射线衍射(X-ray diffractometer, XRD),探究不同条件下砷的释放固定和群落的演替。【结果】高砷地下水组(G组)和沉积物组(S组)富集得到的铁还原功能群落具有明显差异,G组中以Aeromonadaceae为特殊优势菌群,而S组中以Shewanellaceae为特殊优势菌群。微宇宙实验结果显示,S组的铁还原量相对较高且速率较快;G组与S组中液相砷形态存在明显差异,整个培养期内G组均以As(Ⅴ)为主,而S组中前期以As(Ⅴ)为主,当反应到达20 d时液相As(Ⅲ)高达3.4μmol/L,推测此时具有砷还原功能的群落占优势地位。当反应...     

Phytopathogenic bacteria utilize host glucose as a signal to stimulate virulence through LuxR homologues

Chemical signal-mediated biological communication is common within bacteria and between bacteria and their hosts. Many plant-associated bacteria respond to unknown plant compounds to regulate bacterial gene expression. However, the nature of the plant compounds that mediate such interkingdom communication and the underlying mechanisms remain poorly characterized. Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc) causes black rot disease on brassica vegetables. Xcc contains an orphan LuxR regulator (XccR) which senses a plant signal that was validated to be glucose by HPLC-MS. The glucose concentration increases in apoplast fluid after Xcc infection, which is caused by the enhanced activity of plant sugar transporters translocating sugar and cell-wall invertases releasing glucose from sucrose. XccR recruits glucose, but not fructose, sucrose, glucose 6-phosphate, and UDP-glucose, to activate pip expression. Deletion of the bacterial glucose transporter gene sglT impaired pathogen virulence and pip expression. Structural prediction showed that the N-terminal domain of XccR forms an alternative pocket neighbouring the AHL-binding pocket for glucose docking. Substitution of three residues affecting structural stability abolished the ability of XccR to bind to the luxXc box in the pip promoter. Several other XccR homologues from plant-associated bacteria can also form stable complexes with glucose, indicating that glucose may function as a common signal molecule for pathogen–plant interactions. The conservation of a glucose/XccR/pip-like system in plant-associated bacteria suggests that some phytopathogens have evolved the ability to utilize host compounds as virulence signals, indicating that LuxRs mediate an interkingdom signalling circuit.     

IL-33-ST2 pathway regulates AECII transdifferentiation by targeting alveolar macrophage in a bronchopulmonary dysplasia mouse model

Evidence points to the indispensable function of alveolar macrophages (AMs) in normal lung development and tissue homeostasis. However, the importance of AMs in bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) has not been elucidated. Here, we identified a significant role of abnormal AM proliferation and polarization in alveolar dysplasia during BPD, which is closely related to the activation of the IL-33-ST2 pathway. Compared with the control BPD group, AMs depletion partially abolished the epithelialmesenchymal transition process of AECII and alleviated pulmonary differentiation arrest. In addition, IL-33 or ST2 knockdown has protective effects against lung injury after hyperoxia, which is associated with reduced AM polarization and proliferation. The protective effect disappeared following reconstitution of AMs in injured IL-33 knockdown mice, and the differentiation of lung epithelium was blocked again. In conclusion, the IL-33-ST2 pathway regulates AECII transdifferentiation by targeting AMs proliferation and polarization in BPD, which shows a novel strategy for manipulating the IL-33–ST2-AMs axis for the diagnosis and intervention of BPD.