Case of a stronger capability of maize seedlings to use ammonium being responsible for the higher 15N recovery efficiency of ammonium compared with nitrate

Plant and Soil - Biocrusts are important functional units in dryland ecosystems. Regarded as ecosystem engineers, cyanobacteria in biocrusts contribute several major physico-chemical and biological...     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Rubellimicrobium roseum</Emphasis> sp. nov., a Gram-negative bacterium isolated from the forest soil sample

A novel pink-coloured, non-spore-forming, non-motile, Gram-negative bacterium, designated YIM 48858^T, is described by using a polyphasic approach. The strain can grow at pH 6.5–9 (optimum at pH 7) and 25–30°C (optimum at 28°C). NaCl is not required for its growth. Positive for oxidase and catalase. Urease activity, nitrate reduction, starch and Tween 80 tests are negative reaction. 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity studies showed that strain YIM 48858^T is a member of the genus Rubellimicrobium, with similarities of 96.3, 95.7 and 95.5% to Rubellimicrobium mesophilum MSL-20^T, Rubellimicrobium aerolatum 5715S-9^T and Rubellimicrobium thermophilum DSM 16684^T, respectively. Q-10 was the predominant respiratory ubiquinone as in the other members of the genus Rubellimicrobium. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphoglycolipid, glycolipid and the major fatty acids were C18:1 ω7c, C16:0 and C10:0 3-OH, which are very different from the valid published species. The DNA G + C content was 67.7 mol%. Both phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic evidence supports that YIM 48858^T is a novel species of the genus Rubellimicrobium, for which the name Rubellimicrobium roseum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 48858^T (=CCTCC AA 208029^T =KCTC 23202^T).     

Robust stability analysis of delayed Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy Hopfield neural networks with discontinuous activation functions

In this paper, the global robust stability problem of delayed Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy Hopfield neural networks with discontinuous activation functions (TSFHNNs) is considered. Based on Lyapunov stability theory and M-matrices theory, we derive a stability criterion to guarantee the global robust stability of TSFHNNs. Compared with the existing literature, we remove the assumptions on the neuron activations such as Lipschitz conditions, bounded, monotonic increasing property or the assumption that the right-limit value is bigger than the left one at the discontinuous point. Finally, two numerical examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed stability results.     

Molecular cloning and characterization of a novel human gene containing 4 ankyrin repeat domains

Ankyrin repeat, one of the most important protein motifs, plays a wide variety of roles in protein-protein interactions and in the signal pathways. Via large-scale sequencing, a novel 941-bp gene was isolated from an 18-week old human fetal brain cDNA library. It encodes a putative protein of 158 amino acid residues with four conserved ankyrin repeat domains. It displays a high degree of homology with rat low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 2-binding protein (Lrp2bp), and was therefore was named hLrp2bp (human Lrp2bp). The hLrp2bp gene was located in chromosome 4q35 and the conserved ankyrin repeat domains were located between amino acid residues 10 and 116. RT-PCR revealed that hLrp2bp was mainly expressed in the human testis, small intestine, colon and blood leukocytes, and in human pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells. A HEK293 cell was transfected with the ORF of hLrp2bp, and analyses showed that the protein was distributed both in the cytoplasm and nucleus.     

广西天然林中藤本植物区系组成及系统发育多样性

藤本植物是热带和亚热带森林的重要组分,在过去几十年中藤本植物多样性在热带森林增加,有可能导致森林的多样性减少,碳储量等生态系统服务功能降低,引起广泛关注。以《广西植被志要》中共355个样地数据(喀斯特森林、海拔1000 m以下的非喀斯特森林和海拔1000 m以上的非喀斯特森林)为基础,结合气候数据,分析天然林中藤本植物区系组成、不同生境藤本植物物种多样性与系统发育多样性关系、藤本植物物种多样性与年平均温度关系,以及系统发育结构特点。结果表明:(1)广西天然林藤本植物中,热带分布的含藤属占比最大(75.4%),温带分布含藤属占比较低(12.3%),世界广布含藤属和亚洲分布含藤属占比最小,海拔1000 m以下的喀斯特和非喀斯特森林都有一些专有的含藤科属;(2) 3个生境藤本的Gleason物种多样性和系统发育多样性与年均温都不相关,它们的物种多样性差异不显著,但是系统发育多样性有显著差异,海拔1000 m以下的非喀斯特森林中系统发育多样性最高,喀斯特森林系统发育多样性最低;(3)非喀斯特森林藤本植物系统发育结构趋向于离散,暗指竞争排斥作用是藤本植物组合在该生境群落主要构建机制,喀斯特森林藤本植物系统发育结构趋向于聚集,暗指藤本植物组合由生境过滤作用为主形成。这些研究发现对于热带亚热带森林藤本植物的多样性组成及其共存机制提供了新认识。     

Heat-Stable Molecule Derived from Streptococcus cristatus Induces APOBEC3 Expression and Inhibits HIV-1 Replication

Although most human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) cases worldwide are transmitted through mucosal surfaces, transmission through the oral mucosal surface is a rare event. More than 700 bacterial species have been detected in the oral cavity. Despite great efforts to discover oral inhibitors of HIV, little information is available concerning the anti-HIV activity of oral bacterial components. Here we show that a molecule from an oral commensal bacterium, Streptococcus cristatus CC5A can induce expression of APOBEC3G (A3G) and APOBEC3F (A3F) and inhibit HIV-1 replication in THP-1 cells. We show by qRT-PCR that expression levels of A3G and A3F increase in a dose-dependent manner in the presence of a CC5A extract, as does A3G protein levels by Western blot assay. In addition, when the human monocytic cell line THP-1 was treated with CC5A extract, the replication of HIV-1 IIIB was significantly suppressed compared with IIIB replication in untreated THP-1 cells. Knock down of A3G expression in THP-1 cells compromised the ability of CC5A to inhibit HIV-1 IIIB infectivity. Furthermore, SupT1 cells infected with virus produced from CC5A extract-treated THP-1 cells replicated virus with a higher G to A hypermutation rate (a known consequence of A3G activity) than virus used from untreated THP-1 cells. This suggests that S. cristatus CC5A contains a molecule that induces A3G/F expression and thereby inhibits HIV replication. These findings might lead to the discovery of a novel anti-HIV/AIDS therapeutic.     

不同类型人工湿地微生物群落的研究进展

微生物是人工湿地不可缺少的成员,对湿地生态系统中物质转化、能量流动起着重要作用.本文从人工湿地微生物群落的研究方法、微生物群落结构与组成、微生物群落调节作用与环境因素的关系等方面,综述了人工湿地微生物的研究进展.各种新颖的分子生物学方法已经成为研究人工湿地的微生物多样性的有力工具,其中最常见的是变性梯度凝胶电泳(DGGE)和寡核苷酸荧光探针原位杂交(FISH);人工湿地微生物群落的调节作用主要取决于湿地的水文条件、废水的特点(包括组成成分,污染物的特点和利用性)、湿地的过滤材料或土壤类型、植物和各种环境因素;不同人工湿地类型的微生物群落组成,从多到少依次是变形菌、噬纤维菌.黄杆菌菌群、放线菌和厚壁菌.如何进一步加深对氮循环相关微生物多样性的研究,提高废水中氮的去除效率依然是未来人工湿地技术需要解决的重要问题之一.