To age or not to age

According to the antagonistic pleiotropy theory of ageing, natural selection has favoured genes conferring short-term benefits to the organism at the cost of deterioration in later life. The 'disposable soma' theory expresses this as a life-history strategy in which somatic maintenance is below the level required to prevent ageing, thus enabling higher immediate fertility. It has been argued that a non-ageing strategy will always be bettered by a low but non-zero rate of ageing, because the costs of such ageing will be felt only in the distant future when they are of negligible importance. Here, we examine this argument critically. We find that a non-ageing strategy will be locally optimal if, in the presence of ageing, the onset of deterioration is sufficiently rapid or early. Conversely, ageing will be optimal if deterioration is sufficiently slow or late. As the temporal profile of ageing changes from one of steady deterioration to one involving a sudden loss of vitality after a period of little or no decline, the conditions for a non-ageing strategy to be locally optimal become progressively more stringent. But for all forms of profile considered, conditions can be found for which a strategy involving no ageing is locally optimal.     

Dynamics of mitochondrial inheritance in the evolution of binary mating types and two sexes

The uniparental inheritance (UPI) of mitochondria is thought to explain the evolution of two mating types or even true sexes with anisogametes. However, the exact role of UPI is not clearly understood. Here, we develop a new model, which considers the spread of UPI mutants within a biparental inheritance (BPI) population. Our model explicitly considers mitochondrial mutation and selection in parallel with the spread of UPI mutants and self-incompatible mating types. In line with earlier work, we find that UPI improves fitness under mitochondrial mutation accumulation, selfish conflict and mitonuclear coadaptation. However, we find that as UPI increases in the population its relative fitness advantage diminishes in a frequency-dependent manner. The fitness benefits of UPI ‘leak’ into the biparentally reproducing part of the population through successive matings, limiting the spread of UPI. Critically, while this process favours some degree of UPI, it neither leads to the establishment of linked mating types nor the collapse of multiple mating types to two. Only when two mating types exist beforehand can associated UPI mutants spread to fixation under the pressure of high mitochondrial mutation rate, large mitochondrial population size and selfish mutants. Variation in these parameters could account for the range of UPI actually observed in nature, from strict UPI in some Chlamydomonas species to BPI in yeast. We conclude that UPI of mitochondria alone is unlikely to have driven the evolution of two mating types in unicellular eukaryotes.     

谷类作物β-葡聚糖合成酶基因家族的研究进展

Beta-葡聚糖是由β-(1,3)和β-(1,4)糖苷键连接的非纤维素多糖,主要分布在谷类作物籽粒胚乳及糊粉层中,在高尔基体合成,经由囊泡运输到质膜,最终在细胞壁上沉积。通过增加胆汁酸排泄,延迟葡萄糖吸收,β-葡聚糖可有效降低胆固醇及血糖水平。Beta-葡聚糖合成酶基因家族成员最早在水稻(Oryza sativa)中得到鉴定,后在其他作物中陆续被发现。该基因家族包括3个主要成员：CslF、CslH和CslJ亚基因家族,起源于不同分支,经过趋同演化,执行合成β-葡聚糖的功能。Beta-葡聚糖基因家族成员均受到负选择压力,演化过程中序列高度保守。CslF亚家族基因成员相对较多,常在染色体上形成基因簇,CslF6是介导β-葡聚糖合成的主效基因。CslF亚家族在叶基部等幼嫩组织中表达水平相对较高,且明显受到光照强度的影响;CslH和CslJ亚家族成员较少,其中CslH亚家族在叶尖等成熟组织中的表达水平高,而CslJ亚家族在籽粒中有较高的表达水平。该文综述了β-葡聚糖合成酶基因家族成员的系统发育关系、表达模式,β-葡聚糖合成酶的亚细胞定位,以及作物中的定向育种研究进展,提出β-葡聚糖合成酶基因家...     

Linkage analysis of X-linked cone-rod dystrophy: localization to Xp11.4 and definition of a locus distinct from RP2 and RP3.

Progressive X-linked cone-rod dystrophy (COD1) is a retinal disease affecting primarily the cone photoreceptors. The COD1 locus originally was localized, by the study of three independent families, to a region between Xp11.3 and Xp21.1, encompassing the retinitis pigmentosa (RP) 3 locus. We have refined the COD1 locus to a limited region of Xp11.4, using two families reported elsewhere and a new extended family. Genotype analysis was performed by use of eight microsatellite markers (tel-M6CA, DXS1068, DXS1058, DXS993, DXS228, DXS1201, DXS1003, and DXS1055-cent), spanning a distance of 20 cM. Nine-point linkage analysis, by use of the VITESSE program for X-linked disorders, established a maximum LOD score (17.5) between markers DXS1058 and DXS993, spanning 4.0 cM. Two additional markers, DXS977 and DXS556, which map between DXS1058 and DXS993, were used to further narrow the critical region. The RP3 gene, RPGR, was excluded on the basis of two obligate recombinants, observed in two independent families. In a third family, linkage analysis did not exclude the RPGR locus. The entire coding region of the RPGR gene from two affected males from family 2 was sequenced and was found to be normal. Haplotype analysis of two family branches, containing three obligate recombinants, two affected and one unaffected, defined the COD1 locus as distal to DXS993 and proximal to DXS556, a distance of approximately 1.0 Mb. This study excludes COD1 as an allelic variant of RP3 and establishes a novel locus that is sufficiently defined for positional cloning.     

Addition of Nitrogen Increases Variability of Vegetation Cover in an Arid System with Unpredictable Rainfall

Ecosystems - Addition of nitrogen (N) to rangeland that has been degraded through overgrazing or drought can hasten vegetation recovery. Additional N may influence temporal stability of vegetation...     

Growth and age determination of the tropical Australian cubozoan Chiropsalmus sp.

Chiropsalmus sp. medusae collected in this study ranged from 3 to 71 mm diagonal bell width and displayed growth best described by the following equation size (mm) = 74.9 × exp (−exp(0.041 (time since metamorphosis (day) −35.6674))). Growth rates of up to 7 mm week⁻¹ increase in diagonal bell width are theoretically possible, with animals able to reach sexual maturity in approximately 70 days. Correlation of the number of rings on the statoliths with the predicted age of the individual from the field produced a relationship that indicates the growth rings are laid down daily and as such could be used to infer age of the medusae. Over the 1998–1999 season, there were four influxes of juvenile cohorts, each occurring approximately 14 days after a major rainfall event.