太行山南麓山区栓皮栎-扁担杆生态系统水分利用策略

分析了太行山南麓低丘山区降水、泉水、地下水、土壤水以及栓皮栎、扁担杆的氢氧稳定同位素特征,结合Iso Source模型确定了栓皮栎和扁担杆水分来源的季节性差异,并对栓皮栎和扁担杆水分利用策略进行分析。结果表明,同一生态系统中的栓皮栎和扁担杆枝条水的δ18O和δD值差别明显。雨季中栓皮栎和扁担杆水分来源较浅,以0—20 cm土壤水分为主,但旱季中栓皮栎和扁担杆水分主要来源均比雨季明显加深,其中栓皮栎主要利用40—60 cm土壤水分,扁担杆则主要利用20—40 cm土壤水分。此外,旱季后期栓皮栎还利用部分泉水,其比例达到了19.6%。二者水分来源的不同,使得栓皮栎与扁担杆在旱季期间能避开用水冲突。旱季中生长在生态系统上层的栓皮栎中午部分气孔关闭,蒸腾速率下降,生长在生态系统下层的扁担杆日均蒸腾速率、气孔导度则分别比栓皮栎下降了46.94%和30.58%。栓皮栎和扁担杆分别采取了深水源及部分气孔关闭和浅水源及低蒸腾耗散的水分利用策略来利用旱季中有限的水分,因而其组成的生态系统表现出较强地适合太行山南麓脆弱环境的生态适应性。     

华北低丘山区栓皮栎生态系统氧同位素日变化及蒸散定量区分

利用稳定同位素技术对华北低丘山区栓皮栎生态系统氧同位素日变化及蒸散定量区分进行研究,为华北低丘山区森林生态系统水汽交换研究提供基础。试验采用离轴积分腔输出光谱技术(OA-ICOS)连续测定生态系统不同高度水汽浓度和δ18O值,同时采用真空提取和液态水同位素分析仪测定枝条和土壤的δ18O值。结果显示,4个晴天中大气水汽浓度日变化复杂,变化趋势差异大,而δ18O日变化均成高-低-高的"V"型变化,最小值出现在12:00—18:00。Keeling方程在10:00—12:00的相关系数R2均大于0.71,方程达到极显著水平,表明此时段蒸腾速率较高,满足植物蒸腾的同位素稳定态假设。利用Keeling方程估算的栓皮栎生态系统δET值有相似的低-高-低日变化,与大气的δv值变化趋势相反。同位素分割结果显示栓皮栎生态系统中蒸腾占蒸散比例日变化呈现低-高-低的趋势,10:00—14:00蒸腾占蒸散比例达到90%以上,尽管6:00—10:00和14:00—18:00的蒸腾占蒸散比例下降,但平均值仍高达69.38%,表明华北低丘山区栓皮栎生态系统的蒸散主要来源于植物蒸腾。     

Comparative molecular phylogeny and evolution of sex chromosome DNA sequences in the family Canidae (Mammalia: Carnivora)

To investigate the molecular phylogeny and evolution of the family Canidae, nucleotide sequences of the zinc-finger-protein gene on the Y chromosome (ZFY, 924-1146 bp) and its homologous gene on the X chromosome (ZFX, 834-839 bp) for twelve canid species were determined. The phylogenetic relationships among species reconstructed by the paternal ZFY sequences closely agreed with those by mtDNA and autosomal DNA trees in previous reports, and strongly supported the phylogenetic affinity between the wolf-like canids clade and the South American canids clade. However, the branching order of some species differed between phylogenies of ZFY and ZFX genes: Cuon alpinus and Canis mesomelas were included in the wolf-like canid clades in the ZFY tree, whereas both species were clustered in a group of Chrysocyon brachyurus and Speothos venaticus in the ZFX tree. The topology difference between ZFY and ZFX trees may have resulted from the two-times higher substitution rate of the former than the latter, which was clarified in the present study. In addition, two types of transposable element sequence (SINE-I and SINE-II) were found to occur in the ZFY final intron of the twelve canid species examined. Because the SINE-I sequences were shared by all the species, they may have been inserted into the ZFY of the common ancestor before species radiation in Canidae. By contract, SINE-II found in only Canis aureus could have been inserted into ZFY independently after the speciation. The molecular diversity of SINE sequences of Canidae reflects evolutionary history of the species radiation.     

Direct and efficient production of ethanol from cellulosic material with a yeast strain displaying cellulolytic enzymes

For direct and efficient ethanol production from cellulosic materials, we constructed a novel cellulose-degrading yeast strain by genetically codisplaying two cellulolytic enzymes on the cell surface of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. By using a cell surface engineering system based on alpha-agglutinin, endoglucanase II (EGII) from the filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei QM9414 was displayed on the cell surface as a fusion protein containing an RGSHis6 (Arg-Gly-Ser-His(6)) peptide tag in the N-terminal region. EGII activity was detected in the cell pellet fraction but not in the culture supernatant. Localization of the RGSHis6-EGII-alpha-agglutinin fusion protein on the cell surface was confirmed by immunofluorescence microscopy. The yeast strain displaying EGII showed significantly elevated hydrolytic activity toward barley beta-glucan, a linear polysaccharide composed of an average of 1,200 glucose residues. In a further step, EGII and beta-glucosidase 1 from Aspergillus aculeatus No. F-50 were codisplayed on the cell surface. The resulting yeast cells could grow in synthetic medium containing beta-glucan as the sole carbon source and could directly ferment 45 g of beta-glucan per liter to produce 16.5 g of ethanol per liter within about 50 h. The yield in terms of grams of ethanol produced per gram of carbohydrate utilized was 0.48 g/g, which corresponds to 93.3% of the theoretical yield. This result indicates that efficient simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of cellulose to ethanol are carried out by a recombinant yeast cells displaying cellulolytic enzymes.     

D-Amino acid oxidase of Streptomyces coelicolor and the effect of D-amino acids on the bacterium

The homologous gene of D-amino acid oxidase (DAO) in prokaryotic organisms is predominantly found in a group of bacteria called the Actinobacteria. We have analyzed the DAO of the model actinomycete Streptomyces coelicolor and the effect of D-amino acids on this bacterium. When expressed in Escherichia coli, the translated product of the putative dao gene of this bacterium exhibited oxidase activity against neutral and basic D-amino acids, with a higher activity toward D-valine and D-isoleucine, but not to their corresponding L-amino acids. This substrate specificity was largely different from that of the DAO of the actinobacterium Arthrobacter protophormiae. The gene message and DAO activity were constitutively detected in S. coelicolor cells, and unlike eukaryotic DAOs, the presence of a D-amino acid did not significantly induce expression. The D-amino acids that were a good substrate for S. coelicolor DAO inhibited cell growth, delayed morphological development and affected cell morphology, but they did not inhibit biofilm formation. Disruption of the dao gene had no effect on the morphology and morphological development of S. coelicolor cells, the assimilation of D-valine or the sensitivity to growth inhibition by D-valine under the experimental conditions, showing that in this bacterium DAO does not play a significant role in either morphological development or the assimilation and detoxification of D-amino acids.