Ecology of Compounding Disturbances: The Effects of Prescribed Burning After Clearcutting

Disturbance regimes in much of the boreal forest have shifted from wildfire to clearcutting over the last century, resulting in concerns for biodiversity. Because the boreal forest has evolved under a natural fire regimes, we hypothesized that application of prescribed burning (PB) after clearcutting would result in plant communities more similar to wildfire than clearcut only. However, because clearcutting + PB involves multiple disturbances in a short interval, we proposed an alternate hypothesis that clearcutting + PB would result in a species composition and trait assemblage that differ from those that develop after a single wildfire or clearcutting event. We determined species composition, diversity, and trait composition of 17 clearcut, 17 clearcut + PB, and 15 wildfire sites of jack pine (Pinus banksiana) dominated forests in northwestern Ontario, Canada 15–37 years after disturbance. Contrary to our primary hypothesis we found that clearcut + PB formed communities different from wildfire and clearcut, the latter two being similar. Clearcut + PB harbored more early successional species associated with seed banking, wind dispersal, deciduous foliage, and alien origin than wildfire or clearcut sites, which showed no specific trait associations. Taxonomic and trait analysis of clearcut + PB sites exhibited effects of compound disturbances, as observed after short-interval fires, supporting our alternate hypothesis. We concluded that PB after clearcutting formed plant communities significantly different from those developed either after clearcutting or wildfire alone. We attribute this community divergence to the compounding effects associated with the addition of prescribed fire to these previously disturbed forests.     

Studies on in vitro synthesis of serum lipoproteins in rats maintained on normal and atherogenic diets: effects of cobalt and manganese supplements at deficient and abundant doses

The effects of Co(II) and Mn (II) supplements at abundant as well as, deficient doses on in vitro synthesis of serum lipoproteins in rats maintained on normal and atherogenic diets were studied. While an adequate oral supplement of Co(II) or iv administration of Mn (II) at very low doses to the experimental rats fed on salt-free stock ration diet produces hyperlipidemic changes in increasing C/P ratio in serum and also the serum LP content. On the other hand, the animals on atherogenic diet supplemented with deficient Co(II) or excess Mn(II) results in a lowering of hyperlipidemia and hyperlipoproteinemia, with concomitant decrease in C/P ratio. Dietary lipids (eg. cholesterol, butter-fat etc.) vis-a-vis Mn (II) deficiency or Co(II) in excess reflect a homeostatic control mechanism for keeping the excess lipid in a state of solution as lipoprotein complexes. Deficient Co(II) or excess Mn (II) in turn, results in a decrease in protein synthesis and a relatively impaired rate of secretion of protein from liver to serum. Moreover, Mn (II) deficiency increases, while its abundance, significantly restricts 14C- labelled amino acid incorporation into alpha 2-lipoprotein molecules. Neither cobalt depletion, nor its adequate oral substitution help improvise the hepatic synthesis of alpha 2-apolipoproteins in experimental animals. This situation remains unaltered even by overloading the diets with saturated fats or by other atherogenic agents, instead of vegetable oils preferably rich in mono or dienoic fatty acids.     

Halocin SH10 production by an extreme haloarchaeon Natrinema sp. BTSH10 isolated from salt pans of South India

Halobacteria, members of the domain Archaea that live under extremely halophilic conditions, are often considered as dependable source for deriving novel enzymes, novel genes, bioactive compounds and other industrially important molecules. Protein antibiotics have potential for application as preserving agents in food industry, leather industry and in control of infectious bacteria. Halocins are proteinaceous antibiotics synthesized and released into the environment by extreme halophiles, a universal characteristic of halophilic bacteria. Herein, we report the production of halocin (SH10) by an extremely halophilic archeon Natrinema sp. BTSH10 isolated from salt pan of Kanyakumari, Tamilnadu, India and optimization of medium for enhanced production of halocin. It was found that the optimal conditions for maximal halocin production were 42 °C, pH 8.0, and 104 h of incubation at 200 rpm with 2% (V/V) inoculum concentration in Zobell’s medium containing 3 M NaCl, Galactose, beef extract, and calcium chloride as additional supplements. Results indicated scope for fermentation production of halocin for probable applications using halophilic archeon Natrinema sp. BTSH10.     

Microplate assay of elevated esterase activity in individual pyrethroid-resistant mosquitoes

Involvement of esterase-mediated hydrolysis as a mechanism of pyrethroidresistance in three species of mosquitoes,viz., Aedes aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus andAnopheles Stephensi was investigated by microplate assay of Β-esterases in individual larva and adult female and male mosquitoes. Assuming an absorbance value of 0.4 and above at 555 nm as the threshold level of elevated esterase activity which confers resistance, frequency distributions of such individual test mosquitoes were constructed in resistant and susceptible populations. The results indicate the involvement of ester hydrolysis of Pyrethroids as a predominant mechanism of pyrethroid-resistance in the larvae ofCulex quinquefasciatus but not inAedes aegypti. However, a marginal role of esterases is indicated in the larvae ofAnopheles stephensi.     

Fatty acid composition and the characterization of a novel dioxo C18-fatty acid in the latex of Hevea brasiliensis

The fatty acids of the triacylglycerol fraction of the latex of the rubber plant consists of 97% of a C₁₈ furanoid fatty acid, 10,13-epoxy-11-methyloctadeca-10,12-dienoic. The free fatty acid fraction is composed of a more equally distributed mixture of 16:0, 18:0, 18:1, 18:2 and the furanoid acid. A novel dioxo fatty acid, 10,13-dioxo-11-methyloctadecanoic, was also isolated and characterized.     

Mitochondrial fission and mitophagy are independent mechanisms regulating ischemia/reperfusion injury in primary neurons

Mitochondrial dynamics and mitophagy are constitutive and complex systems that ensure a healthy mitochondrial network through the segregation and subsequent degradation of damaged mitochondria. Disruption of these systems can lead to mitochondrial dysfunction and has been established as a central mechanism of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Emerging evidence suggests that mitochondrial dynamics and mitophagy are integrated systems; however, the role of this relationship in the context of I/R injury remains unclear. To investigate this concept, we utilized primary cortical neurons isolated from the novel dual-reporter mitochondrial quality control knockin mice (C57BL/6-Gt(ROSA)26Sortm1(CAG-mCherry/GFP)Ganl/J) with conditional knockout (KO) of Drp1 to investigate changes in mitochondrial dynamics and mitophagic flux during in vitro I/R injury. Mitochondrial dynamics was quantitatively measured in an unbiased manner using a machine learning mitochondrial morphology classification system, which consisted of four different classifications: network, unbranched, swollen, and punctate. Evaluation of mitochondrial morphology and mitophagic flux in primary neurons exposed to oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) and reoxygenation (OGD/R) revealed extensive mitochondrial fragmentation and swelling, together with a significant upregulation in mitophagic flux. Furthermore, the primary morphology of mitochondria undergoing mitophagy was classified as punctate. Colocalization using immunofluorescence as well as western blot analysis revealed that the PINK1/Parkin pathway of mitophagy was activated following OGD/R. Conditional KO of Drp1 prevented mitochondrial fragmentation and swelling following OGD/R but did not alter mitophagic flux. These data provide novel evidence that Drp1 plays a causal role in the progression of I/R injury, but mitophagy does not require Drp1-mediated mitochondrial fission.Subject terms: Mitophagy, Mechanisms of disease     

Predicting protein folding rate change upon point mutation using residue‐level coevolutionary information

Change in folding kinetics of globular proteins upon point mutation is crucial to a wide spectrum of biological research, such as protein misfolding, toxicity, and aggregations. Here we seek to address whether residue‐level coevolutionary information of globular proteins can be informative to folding rate changes upon point mutations. Generating residue‐level coevolutionary networks of globular proteins, we analyze three parameters: relative coevolution order (rCEO), network density (ND), and characteristic path length (CPL). A point mutation is considered to be equivalent to a node deletion of this network and respective percentage changes in rCEO, ND, CPL are found linearly correlated (0.84, 0.73, and ?0.61, respectively) with experimental folding rate changes. The three parameters predict the folding rate change upon a point mutation with 0.031, 0.045, and 0.059 standard errors, respectively. Proteins 2016; 84:3–8. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.