Human activities and climate variability drive fast‐paced change across the world's estuarine–coastal ecosystems

Time series of environmental measurements are essential for detecting, measuring and understanding changes in the Earth system and its biological communities. Observational series have accumulated over the past 2–5 decades from measurements across the world's estuaries, bays, lagoons, inland seas and shelf waters influenced by runoff. We synthesize information contained in these time series to develop a global view of changes occurring in marine systems influenced by connectivity to land. Our review is organized around four themes: (i) human activities as drivers of change; (ii) variability of the climate system as a driver of change; (iii) successes, disappointments and challenges of managing change at the sea‐land interface; and (iv) discoveries made from observations over time. Multidecadal time series reveal that many of the world's estuarine–coastal ecosystems are in a continuing state of change, and the pace of change is faster than we could have imagined a decade ago. Some have been transformed into novel ecosystems with habitats, biogeochemistry and biological communities outside the natural range of variability. Change takes many forms including linear and nonlinear trends, abrupt state changes and oscillations. The challenge of managing change is daunting in the coastal zone where diverse human pressures are concentrated and intersect with different responses to climate variability over land and over ocean basins. The pace of change in estuarine–coastal ecosystems will likely accelerate as the human population and economies continue to grow and as global climate change accelerates. Wise stewardship of the resources upon which we depend is critically dependent upon a continuing flow of information from observations to measure, understand and anticipate future changes along the world's coastlines.     

利用RAPD标记和单株树大配子体构建马尾松的分子标记连锁图谱

利用300个随机的寡核苷酸引物和马尾松(Pinus massoniana Lamb.)种子的胚乳(大配子体)产生的随机扩增多态性DNA(RAPD)分子标记,进行马尾松标记连锁图谱的构建。经筛选共获得64个稳定的RAPD标记,利用多点连锁分析,其中的48个标记分属于13个不同的连锁群(连锁对),该图谱覆盖的基因组总长度约为692.5cM(centimorgan),标记间平均距离约为14.7cM,它为马尾松连锁图谱的构建提供了一个连锁框架。     

One-step "green" preparation of graphene nanosheets and carbon nanospheres mixture by electrolyzing graphite rob and its application for glucose biosensing

The graphene nanosheets and carbon nanospheres mixture (GNS–CNS) was prepared by electrolyzing graphite rob in KNO₃ solution under constant current, which was characterized by TEM, AFM, SEM, FT-IR, XRD, XPS, TGA and UV–vis. The nano-mixture can keep stable in water for more than one month. Based on this kind of mixture material, a novel electrochemical biosensing platform for glucose determination was developed. Cyclic voltammetry of glucose oxidase (GOD) immobilized on GNS–CNS/GCE exhibited a pair of well-defined quasi-reversible redox peaks at −0.488 V (E_pa) and −0.509 V (E_pc) by direct electron transfer between the protein and the electrode. The charge-transfer coefficient (α) was 0.51, the electron transfer rate constant was 2.64 s⁻¹ and the surface coverage of HRP was 3.18 × 10⁻¹⁰ mol cm⁻². The immobilized GOD could retain its bioactivity and catalyze the reduction of dissolved oxygen. The glucose biosensor has a linear range from 0.4 to 20 mM with detection limit of 0.1 mM. Moreover, the biosensor exhibits acceptable reproducibility and storage stability. The fabricated biosensor was further used to determine glucose in human plasma sample with the recoveries from 96.83% to 105.52%. Therefore, GOD/GNS–CNS/GCE could be promisingly applied to determine blood sugar concentration in the practical clinical analysis.     

Increased lipogenesis and stearate accelerate vascular calcification in calcifying vascular cells

Vascular calcification is recognized as an independent predictor of cardiovascular mortality, particularly in subjects with chronic kidney disease. However, the pathways by which dysregulation of lipid and mineral metabolism simultaneously occur in this particular population remain unclear. We have shown that activation of the farnesoid X receptor (FXR) blocks mineralization of bovine calcifying vascular cells (CVCs) and in ApoE knock-out mice with 5/6 nephrectomy. In contrast to FXR, this study showed that liver X receptor (LXR) activation by LXR agonists and adenovirus-mediated LXR overexpression by VP16-LXRα and VP16-LXRβ accelerated mineralization of CVCs. Conversely, LXR inhibition by dominant negative (DN) forms of LXRα and LXRβ reduced calcium content in CVCs. The regulation of mineralization by FXR and LXR agonists was highly correlated with changes in lipid accumulation, fatty acid synthesis, and the expression of sterol regulatory element binding protein-1 (SREBP-1). The rate of lipogenesis in CVCs through the SREBP-1c dependent pathway was reduced by FXR activation, but increased by LXR activation. SREBP-1c overexpression augmented mineralization in CVCs, whereas SREBP-1c DN inhibited alkaline phosphatase activity and mineralization induced by LXR agonists. LXR and SREBP-1c activations increased, whereas FXR activation decreased, saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids derived from lipogenesis. In addition, we found that stearate markedly promoted mineralization of CVCs as compared with other fatty acids. Furthermore, inhibition of either acetyl-CoA carboxylase or acyl-CoA synthetase reduced mineralization of CVCs, whereas inhibition of stearoyl-CoA desaturase induced mineralization. Therefore, a stearate metabolite derived from lipogenesis might be a risk factor for the development of vascular calcification.     

Cell-surface markers for the isolation of pancreatic cell types derived from human embryonic stem cells

Using a flow cytometry-based screen of commercial antibodies, we have identified cell-surface markers for the separation of pancreatic cell types derived from human embryonic stem (hES) cells. We show enrichment of pancreatic endoderm cells using CD142 and of endocrine cells using CD200 and CD318. After transplantation into mice, enriched pancreatic endoderm cells give rise to all the pancreatic lineages, including functional insulin-producing cells, demonstrating that they are pancreatic progenitors. In contrast, implanted, enriched polyhormonal endocrine cells principally give rise to glucagon cells. These antibodies will aid investigations that use pancreatic cells generated from pluripotent stem cells to study diabetes and pancreas biology.