Clade-specific morphological diversification and adaptive radiation in Hawaiian songbirds.

The Hawaiian honeycreepers are a dramatic example of adaptive radiation but contrast with the four other songbird lineages that successfully colonized the Hawaiian archipelago and failed to undergo similar diversification. To explore the processes that produced the diversity dichotomy in this insular fauna, we compared clade age and morphological diversity between the speciose honeycreepers and the comparatively depauperate Hawaiian thrushes. Mitochondrial-DNA-based genetic distances between these Hawaiian clades and their continental sister taxa indicate that the ancestral thrush colonized the Hawaiian Islands as early as the common ancestor of the honeycreepers. This similar timing of colonization indicates that the marked difference in diversity between the Hawaiian honeycreeper and thrush clades is unlikely to result from differences in these clades' tenures within the archipelago. If time cannot explain the contrasting diversities of these taxa, then an intrinsic, clade-specific trait may have fostered the honeycreeper radiation. As the honeycreepers have diversified most dramatically in morphological characters related to resource utilization, we used principal components analyses of bill characters to compare the magnitudes of morphological variation in the ancestral clades from which the Hawaiian honeycreeper and thrush lineages are derived, the Carduelini and Turdinae respectively. Although the Carduelini share a more recent common ancestor and have a lower species diversity than the Turdinae, these finch-like relatives of the honeycreepers exhibit significantly greater variation in bill morphology than do the continental relatives of the Hawaiian thrushes. The higher magnitude of morphological variation in the non-Hawaiian Carduelini suggests that the honeycreepers fall within a clade exhibiting a generally high evolutionary flexibility in bill morphology. Accordingly, although the magnitude of bill variation among the honeycreepers is similar to that of the entire passerine radiation, this dramatic morphological radiation represents an extreme manifestation of a general clade-specific ability to evolve novel morphologies.     

An error estimation of Michaelis-Menten (Monod)-type kinetics

Due to research on biochemistry and genetic engineering, mathematical models of microbial growth have become more complicated but Michaelis-Menten or Monod type expressions have still been used for conversion rates, uptake rates, etc. It is worth examining the error that can be caused by these quasi-steady-state-hypotheses. This paper presents a simple but very effective rationale function that describes the error of the quasi-steady-state hypothesis in enzyme kinetics. A simplified fermentation kinetic model was used for comparison of microbial growth but no analytical error function has been found for batch cultivation. In the case of continuous fermentation the error can be given in an analytical form. Many simulations, based on real SCP experiments, show a significant effect of the quasi-steady-state hypothesis. Since the rate constants of intracellular events are not really known, we have to be very careful when taking into account Michaelis-Menten type expressions in the building of complicated models. Correspondence to: L. Szigeti     

HYBRIDIZATION OF PANUS TIGRINUS AND LENTODIUM SQUAMULOSUM

Crosses between monokaryotic isolates of two strains of Lentodium squamulosum and one strain of Panus tigrinus showed complete intercompatibility. Hybrid fruits from crosses between monokaryotic isolates of L. squamulosum and P. tigrinus were uniformly like the P. tigrinus parent. Though both isolates of L. squamulosum showed considerable variability in form, merging toward P. tigrinus, L. squamulosum could always be distinguished from P. tigrinus from hand sections of the hymenophore. The significance of these results as they bear on the problem of inter-relationships between hymenomycetes and gasteromycetes is discussed. L. squamulosum is recognized as variety squamulosus of P. tigrinus.     

Effects of Protamine Sulfate on Dengue Type 1 Viral Activities

Protamine treatment of type 1 dengue-infected mouse brain suspension resulted in precipitation of several viral specific activities. Complement-fixation activity was almost completely precipitated by protamine. The complement-fixation components recovered in the precipitate were comparable to a non-precipitated reference dengue 1 antigen in their homologous and heterologous reactions. Dengue hemagglutinin was also precipitated by the same treatment. The precipitated hemagglutinin was resolved into three components by buoyant density centrifugation, whose densities were 1.236, 1.215, and 1.178 g/ml, respectively. Three similar HA components were detected in non-protamine treated virus preparations. In both instances the highest-titered HA fraction possessed a buoyant density of 1.21–1.22 g/ml. These HA components were tested in the hemagglutination-inhibition reaction and were proved to be virus-specific. Cesium chloride density gradient centrifugation was shown to be useful for removing possible inhibitor(s) of viral specific hemagglutinin.     

Isolation and characterization of a glycoprotein from the stonefly, Pteronarcys californica, which binds cadmium

The present study reports the isolation and characterization of a cadmium-containing glycoprotein from the water-soluble fraction of an aquatic insect. The isolated glycoprotein contained 0·67% cadmium, 62·1% carbohydrate, and 37·2% protein. The glycoprotein appears to be involved in the detoxification of cadmium, because species insensitive to cadmium contain five times the amount of the glycoprotein as do species sensitive to cadmium.