Developmental instability as phenodeviance in a secondary sexual trait increases sharply with thermal stress

Abstract We test for effects of thermal stress applied to pupal flies from Noumea (New Caledonia) and Taipei (Taiwan) on developmental instability (DI) in the male sex comb of Drosophila bipectinata, as well as on pre‐adult survivorship and adult body size. The temperature treatments were Low (25 °C), High (29 °C) and Variable (18 h at 29 °C, 6 h at 34 °C). Although the Variable treatment reduced survivorship and body size, absolute comb size and fluctuating asymmetry generally were invariant across treatments. In contrast, comb phenodeviance increased with stress in both populations. Phenodeviance in one comb segment (C2) increased sharply with stress, whereas phenodeviance in a second major segment (C1) also increased with stress but only in Noumea flies. A major conclusion is that phenodeviations induced in a secondary sexual trait reflect the developmental environment that also damages fitness components, a foundation stone of the hypothesis that expressions of DI reveal phenotypic quality in sexual selection.     

When colour patterns reflect phylogeography: New species of Dasypeltis (Serpentes: Colubridae: Boigini) from West Africa

Six colour phases are currently known in the genus Dasypeltis in West Africa, three in the D. scabra complex and three in the D. fasciata complex. Molecular phylogenetic analysis reveals that all correspond to distinct species. D. parascabra sp. nov. is described from wet savannah areas of Guinea and Ivory Coast. D. latericia is given full specific rank. The validity of D. sahelensis, D. gansi and D. confusa – three species recently described on the basis of colour pattern and biogeography – is confirmed. D. fasciata is confined to rain forest areas of West and Central Africa. D. scabra is absent from West Africa.     

Thermal energy conduction in a honey bee comb due to cell-heating bees

Theoretical analysis and numerical calculations are performed to characterize the unsteady two-dimensional conduction of thermal energy in an idealized honey bee comb. The situation explored corresponds to a comb containing a number of brood cells occupied by pupae. These cells are surrounded by other cells containing pollen which, in turn, are surrounded (above) by cells containing honey and (below) by vacant cells containing air. Up to five vacant cells in the brood region can be occupied by cell-heating bees which, through the isometrical contraction of their flight muscles, can generate sufficient energy to raise their body temperatures by a few degrees. In this way, the cell-heating bees alter the heat flux and temperature distributions in the brood region so as to maintain conditions that benefit the pupae. The calculations show that the number of cell-heating bees significantly affects the magnitude, time rate of change, and spatial distribution of temperature throughout the comb. They also reveal a vertically aligned asymmetry in the spatial distribution of temperature that is due to the large heat capacity and thermal conductivity of honey relative to air, whereby air-filled cells experience larger temperature increases than honey-filled cells. Analysis shows that convection and radiation represent negligible modes of thermal energy transfer at all levels in the problem considered. Also, because of its small thickness, the wax wall of a comb cell simultaneously presents negligible resistance to conduction heat transfer normal to it and very large resistance along it. As a consequence the walls of a cell play no thermal role, but simply serve as mechanical supports for the materials they contain.     

A Novel Gene Involved in Lesion Formation in Magnaporthe grisea

To date, a number of genes that are expressed in the early stages of infection have been reported, while few genes that are expressed during the course of colonization, after the initiation of plant infection, have been studied. Plant inoculations, real‐time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), gene cloning, protein expression and bioinformatics analysis were combined to identify a novel gene, MgNIP04, in the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe grisea. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the amino acid sequence contained a signal peptide. The wounded inoculation resulted in necrosis specks when the total expressed proteins including MBP‐MgNIP04 was inoculated on the wounded rice leaves, which demonstrated the protein directly interacted with rice. The real‐time PCR result of infected leaves showed that it is upregulated during late stages of infection of rice. Additionally, the copies of the gene expression absolute quantity of the gene were 7.61 × 10², 1.06 × 10³, 1.31 × 10³, 4.13 × 10³, and 4.00 × 10³, at 24, 48, 72, 96 and 168 h postinoculation (HPI), respectively. The higher copies of MgNIP04 were found at 96 and 168 HPI. The copies of MgNIP04 in mycelia of Y98‐63C, Y99‐16, 94‐64‐1b and 95‐23‐4a were significantly lower than those of infected leaves. Through the above bioinformatics and experimental analysis, our result suggested that the MgNIP04 was novel pathogenicity‐related protein in rice blast fungus.     

水稻品种对美国稻瘟病小种IB-33、IB-45和IE-1的抗性遗传

1995年10月至1997年11月,在美国阿肯色大学水稻研究推广中心,用水稻品种LA110和Jasmine-85与水稻品种Teqing、Katy、Mars、LaGrue和Newbonnet进行不完全双列杂交,对其杂交后代和亲本用美国3个主要稻瘟病菌小种(以下简称小种)IB-33、IB-45和IE-1进行接种鉴定和遗传分析研究.结果表明:亲本LA110、Jasmine-85、Teqing抗所有3个小种.Katy抗小种IB-45和IE-1,感小种IB-33.Mars抗小种IE-1,感小种IB-33和IB-45.LaGrue感所有3个小种.Newbonnet抗小种IB-45,感小种IB-33和IE-1.所有抗病亲本的抗病基因,其F1分别对相应小种呈现显性抗病性.抗病亲本杂交,LA110与Jasmine-85对小种IB-33,LA110与Teqing、Jasmine-85对小种IE-1,及Jasmine-85与Teqing对小种IE-1,是等位的抗病基因.LA110与Teqing对小种IB-33,及Jasmine-85与Teqing对小种IB-33,分别存在三对独立遗传的显性抗病基因.LA110与Teqing、Katy、Newbonnet、Jasmine-85对小种IB-45,Jasmine-85与Teqing、Katy、Newbonnet对小种IB-45,LA110与Katy、Mars对小种IE-1,Jasmine-85与Katy、Mars对小种IE-1,分别存在两对独立遗传的显性抗性基因.抗病亲本LA110或Jasmine-85与感病亲本Mars对小种IB-33,抗病亲本LA110与感病亲本Mars对小种IB-45,具有两对显性互补抗病基因,当两对显性抗病基因同时存在时,表现出抗性.抗病亲本LA110或Jasmine-85与感病亲本Katy、LaGrue、Newbonnet对小种IB-33,抗病亲本LA110与感病亲本LaGrue对小种IB-45,抗病亲本Jasmine-85与感病亲本Mars、LaGrue对小种IB-45,抗病亲本LA110或Jasmine-85与感病亲本LaGrue、Newbonnet对小种IE-1,分别存在一对显性抗病基因.两个亲本正、反交的遗传表现一致.本文也讨论了LA110、Teqing和Jasmine-85三个抗病品种在美国水稻抗病育种中利用的可能性.     

江苏省稻瘟病菌的毒性多样性及水稻品种的抗病性

在13个已知日本抗病基因品种上检测1997－1999年采集自江苏省吴江,赣榆,通州,高邮和宜兴等5个代表地区的324个稻瘟病菌株的毒性,结果可将上述菌株划分为90种毒性类型,表明江苏省稻瘟病菌存在着丰富的毒性多样性,毒性类型组成在地区间存在较大的差异,并且随着时间的推移,稻瘟病菌毒性类型组成有差异加大的趋势,在已知抗病基因品种上测定江苏省稻瘟病菌的毒力,结果显示：Pi-k^3,Pi-ta,Pi-ta^2和Pi-sh等抗病基因对江苏省的稻瘟病菌的抗谱很窄,而Pi-i,Pi-z,Pi-z^t和Pi-b等抗病基因的抗谱比较宽,可作为抗源加以利用,用6个代表性毒性类型菌株接种江苏省80筱水稻主载品种和新育成品种,品种抗性分析表明,上述水稻品种中的籼稻和杂交稻对江苏省稻瘟病菌具有较高的抗性,而粳稻品种的抗性较差,上述研究结果为利用水稻品种抗性多样性控制稻瘟病提供了依据。     

影响水稻稻瘟病菌侵染过程的生态因子研究

通过田间和室内模拟等方法研究了水稻生长阶段,品种抗性,温度,降雨量和施N量等因子对稻瘟病菌侵染过程的影响。结果表明,水稻叶表单位面积病菌孢子附着量与水稻不同生长阶段呈负相关关系。稻瘟病潜育期与温度关系密切,在10℃-33℃范围内,以28℃条件下潜育期最短,小于℃,大于28℃的潜育期相应延长;病菌孢子侵染比值与水稻生长阶段呈负相关关系;稻叶表病菌孢子附着率在孢子与叶表接触后的5h内,与降水强度和降水持续时间密切相关,5h后影响变小;在一定条件下,稻瘟病扩展性病斑与非扩展性病的比值,扩展性病斑扩展的最大面积与水稻品种抗性和当时病斑所处叶位有关。     

稻瘟病菌无毒基因Avr-Pi1、Avr-Pi2和 Avr-Pi4a的遗传分析及其分子标记

用CO39近等基因系品种C101LAC（Pi-l),C101A51(Pi-2),C104PKT(Pi-3),C101PKT(Pi-4α）,C105TTP-4L-23(Pi-4b)对稻瘟病菌菌株81278ZB15和GUY11及其有性后代进行毒性分析,结果表明,81278ZB15含Avr-Pil,Aur-Pi2,Aur-Pi4α,Aur-Pi4b无毒基因,有性后代在Pi-1,Pi-2,Pi-4α上的无毒,有毒分离比例符合1：1,有8个后代个体发生了这3个无毒基因座的重组,推断81278ZB15对Pi-l,Pi-2,Pi-4α的的无毒性是由3个不同的单一基因座控制的,且3个基因座紧密连锁,进一步采用rep-PCR法比较了亲本及其在性后代的DNA指纹,获得了与3个无毒基因座紧密连锁的DNA标记（RPF1.2),RPF1.2与Aur-Pil,Aur-Pi2,Aur-Pi4α的遗传距离分别为5.9cM,2.2cM和2.2cM,2个亲本对Pi-3,CO39均有毒性,对Pi-4b均无毒性,但是后代中出现3个对Pi-3,1个对CO39无毒的个体;8个对Pi-4α有毒的个体,对其中可能的原因进行了初步探讨。     

Host Species-Specific Protoplast Damaging Activity of Spore Germination Fluids of Blast Pathogen Magnaporthe grisea

The effect of spore germination fluids (SGFs) of rice and ragi (Eleusine coracana) limited forms of Magnaporthe grisea was studied on the protoplasts of host and non‐host species to determine their host specificity. The concentrated SGFs of rice strain of M. grisea exhibited strong disruptive activity against the protoplasts of two rice cultivars, Fukunishiki and Caloro, but had little effect on the protoplasts of ragi cv. VL 17 and Podophyllum hexandrum. However, the SGFs of ragi strain of M. grisea showed a high tendency to disrupt ragi protoplasts but inflicted less damage on protoplasts of the two rice cultivars and P. hexandrum. These results suggest that SGFs of M. grisea contain some factor(s) which exhibit host species‐specific activity and may be the determinants of basic compatibility.