地中海沿岸沙丘微生境对幼苗出现时空格局的影响

实验样地设在地中海沿岸沙丘,选择了3个不同的微生境代表：(1)稳定沙丘上的开阔地片段,(2)稳定沙丘上的灌丛下区域,(3)不稳定沙丘的路径区域;从2001年11月至2002年4月的整个生长季节,每一个微生境出现的幼苗在4个日期被监测,并在每一个取样日把每一株幼苗鉴定、计数后,用剪刀把地上部分移去;研究调查了3种微生境幼苗出现的时空分布格局,并分析了雨量与幼苗出现数量的关系。结果发现：在地中海沿岸沙丘生态系统,幼苗出现在时间上具有明显的分布特征,大多数幼苗出现在第一观测期,整个生长季幼苗都不断出现,但幼苗出现的数目却逐渐下降;各功能群的幼苗占幼苗总数的比例分别为：1年生阔叶草47．4％,多年生阔叶草2．5％,豆科植物17,0％,菊科植物14．5％,1年生禾草为11．7％,多年生禾草为1．9％,十字花科植物3．7％,伞形科植物1,4％。在空间上,总幼苗密度、物种丰富度和物种多样性等显示出重要的微生境差异,开阔地区域具有最大的幼苗密度、物种丰富度和物种多样性;3个微生境的幼苗出现不是同步的,微生境影响种子萌发的时间分布格局,灌丛下种子萌发具有滞后现象;大多数功能群的幼苗密度分布基本上具有显著的微生境差异,主要物种的幼苗分布也具有显著的微生境差异。雨量和萌发的幼苗数量间未发现显著的关系。     

Carboxyacyl derivatives of cardiolipin as four-tailed hydrophobic anchors for the covalent coupling of hydrophilic proteins to liposomes.

Two carboxyacyl derivatives of cardiolipin, O-succinyl- and O-glutarylcardiolipin, were synthesized with the aim of using them as artificial membrane anchors for the immobilization of hydrophilic proteins to liposomes. Four adjacent fatty acid residues can be introduced into a protein with only one single amino group being blocked, by reacting the cardiolipin derivatives with the protein amino groups after carbodiimide activation. alpha-Chymotrypsin, used as a model protein, and modified with on average two molecules of O-succinylcardiolipin was incorporated into liposomes, which had been prepared by different methods, with very high yield. If incorporated in preformed liposomes, the carboxyacyl cardiolipin anchors were also efficient in binding proteins to liposomal surfaces. Up to 350 micrograms chymotrypsin/mumol lipid were coupled to small unilamellar vesicles, preserving reactivity of the enzyme towards specific macromolecular inhibitors. Human IgG could also be bound to anchor-containing liposomes with high protein to lipid coupling ratio as well as high coupling yield.     

Biofilm induced tolerance towards antimicrobial peptides

Increased tolerance to antimicrobial agents is thought to be an important feature of microbes growing in biofilms. We address the question of how biofilm organization affects antibiotic susceptibility. We established Escherichia coli biofilms with differential structural organization due to the presence of IncF plasmids expressing altered forms of the transfer pili in two different biofilm model systems. The mature biofilms were subsequently treated with two antibiotics with different molecular targets, the peptide antibiotic colistin and the fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin. The dynamics of microbial killing were monitored by viable count determination, and confocal laser microscopy. Strains forming structurally organized biofilms show an increased bacterial survival when challenged with colistin, compared to strains forming unstructured biofilms. The increased survival is due to genetically regulated tolerant subpopulation formation and not caused by a general biofilm property. No significant difference in survival was detected when the strains were challenged with ciprofloxacin. Our data show that biofilm formation confers increased colistin tolerance to cells within the biofilm structure, but the protection is conditional being dependent on the structural organization of the biofilm, and the induction of specific tolerance mechanisms.     

Sampling properties of DNA sequence data in phylogenetic analysis

We inferred phylogenetic trees from individual genes and random samples of nucleotides from the mitochondrial genomes of 10 vertebrates and compared the results to those obtained by analyzing the whole genomes. Individual genes are poor samples in that they infrequently lead to the whole-genome tree. A large number of nucleotide sites is needed to exactly determine the whole-genome tree. A relatively small number of sites, however, often results in a tree close to the whole-genome tree. We found that blocks of contiguous sites were less likely to lead to the whole-genome tree than samples composed of sites drawn individually from throughout the genome. Samples of contiguous sites are not representative of the entire genome, a condition that violates a basic assumption of the bootstrap method as it is applied in phylogenetic studies.      

Oxygen stable isotope ratios of tree-ring cellulose: the next phase of understanding

Analysis of the oxygen isotope ratio of tree-ring cellulose is a valuable tool that can be used as a paleoclimate proxy. Our ability to use this tool has gone through different phases. The first began in the 1970s with the demonstration of empirical relationships between the oxygen isotope ratio of tree-ring cellulose and climate. These empirical relationships, however, did not provide us with the confidence that they are robust through time, across taxa and across geographical locations. The second phase began with a rudimentary understanding of the physiological and biochemical mechanisms responsible for the oxygen isotope ratios of cellulose, which is necessary to increase the power of this tool. This phase culminated in a mechanistic tree-ring model integrating concepts of physiology and biochemistry in a whole-plant system. This model made several assumptions about leaf water isotopic enrichment and biochemistry which, in the nascent third phase, are now being challenged, with surprising results. These third-phase results suggest that, contrary to the model assumption, leaf temperature across a large latitudinal gradient is remarkably constant and does not follow ambient temperature. Recent findings also indicate that the biochemistry responsible for the incorporation of the cellulose oxygen isotopic signature is not as simple as has been assumed. Interestingly, the results of these challenges have strengthened the tree-ring model. There are several other assumptions that can be investigated which will improve the utility of the tree-ring model.