Temporal variation of the effects of landscape composition on lacewings (Chrysopidae: Neuroptera) in vineyards

1. Increasing landscape heterogeneity, both in terms of composition and configuration, can promote natural enemies and biological control in agricultural landscapes. However, relatively poor information exists about the effects of landscape heterogeneity on lacewings, which are a major group of predators. Furthermore, temporal changes of landscape effects on natural enemy dynamics remain largely unexplored.
2. Here, we investigated how landscape composition and configuration affect lacewings and their biological control potential on leafhoppers. Lacewings and leafhoppers were sampled from April to July in 10 vineyards located in southwestern France. The vineyards were selected along a gradient of a proportion of semi‐natural habitats in the landscape.
3. The proportion of semi‐natural habitats positively affected the abundance of adults and eggs, as well as species richness, of lacewings, alone or in interaction with the sampling month. Landscape configuration was never found to enhance abundance or species richness of lacewings. Finally, the predator–prey ratio increased through time but did not respond to landscape composition or configuration.
4. Our study highlights that the proportion of semi‐natural habitats increases both abundance and diversity of lacewings in vineyard landscapes but that this effect varies over time. This result indicates the need to assess the variability of landscape effects over time to maximize biological pest control services in agricultural landscapes.

     

THE EFFECT OF ACTIDIONE ON MITOSIS IN THE SLIME MOLD PHYSARUM POLYCEPHALUM

Actidione, reportedly a specific inhibitor of protein synthesis, was found to reduce the incorporation of labeled amino acids into proteins of the slime mold Physarum polycephalum without drastically inhibiting the incorporation of nucleic acid precursors into RNA. This inhibitor was found to completely block the ensuing mitosis if it was added at any time between telophase and late prophase. Plasmodia given Actidione in late prophase (about the time of nucleolar dissolution) went on through telophase to reconstruction even though nuclear amino acid incorporation was drastically reduced during that period.     

Functional homologies of acidic chromatin proteins in higher and lower eukaryotes

Within a specific fraction of acidic chromatin-associated proteins from HeLa and the lower eukaryote Physarum polycephalum numerous similarities exist. Several of the similar polypeptides in both cell types are synthesized and appear in the residual chromatin material while still others disappear in response to starvation, a common and universal stimulus. Proteins which incorporate no radioactive amino acids during starvation and ultimately disappear from the residual chromatin material are resynthesized upon refeeding. This resynthesis must be complete before mitosis will again occur. These observations suggest that within the complement of acidic chromatin proteins functional homologies exist in diverse eukaryotes.     

The quorum-sensing systems of Vibrio campbellii DS40M4 and BB120 are genetically and functionally distinct

Vibrio campbellii BB120 (previously classified as Vibrio harveyi) is a fundamental model strain for studying quorum sensing in vibrios. A phylogenetic evaluation of sequenced Vibrio strains in Genbank revealed that BB120 is closely related to the environmental isolate V. campbellii DS40M4. We exploited DS40M4's competence for exogenous DNA uptake to rapidly generate greater than 30 isogenic strains with deletions of genes encoding BB120 quorum-sensing system homologues. Our results show that the quorum-sensing circuit of DS40M4 is distinct from BB120 in three ways: (i) DS40M4 does not produce an acyl homoserine lactone autoinducer but encodes an active orphan LuxN receptor, (ii) the quorum regulatory small RNAs (Qrrs) are not solely regulated by autoinducer signalling through the response regulator LuxO and (iii) the DS40M4 quorum-sensing regulon is much smaller than BB120 (~100 genes vs. ~400 genes, respectively). Using comparative genomics to expand our understanding of quorum-sensing circuit diversity, we observe that conservation of LuxM/LuxN proteins differs widely both between and within Vibrio species. These strains are also phenotypically distinct: DS40M4 exhibits stronger interbacterial cell killing, whereas BB120 forms more robust biofilms and is bioluminescent. These results underscore the need to examine wild isolates for a broader view of bacterial diversity in the marine ecosystem.