Description of five new Loma (Microsporidia) species in pacific fishes with redesignation of the type species Loma morhua Morrison & Sprague, 1981, based on morphological and molecular species-boundaries tests

Five new species of Loma were described from five Pacific fishes using light-microscopic and ultrastructural features along with phylogenetic analysis of the gene sequences of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and elongation factor 1-alpha. Morphological data revealed both qualitative and quantitative differences in developmental stages and timing, vesicles, xenoma features, and spore sizes with statistical support that differentiated Loma pacificodae n. sp. in Pacific cod, Loma wallae n. sp. in walleye pollock, Loma kenti n. sp. in Pacific tomcod, Loma lingcodae n. sp. in lingcod, and Loma richardi n. sp. in sablefish from each other and other species in the genus. Phylogenetic analyses combined with monophyly tests supported species designations, but with low resolution in two cases perhaps due to rRNA paralogs or recent speciation. Loma branchialis in haddock was shown to be separate from Loma morhua in Atlantic cod, thereby making L. morhua, and not L. branchialis, the type species. A species from brook trout was shown to be a separate species from Loma salmonae, not a variant strain selected in the laboratory. By comparison with gadid host phylogeny, these Loma species appear to have coevolved with their hosts, first colonizing the Pacific basin about 12 million years ago.     

The nuclear genome of the phytoseiid <Emphasis Type="Italic">Metaseiulus occidentalis</Emphasis> (Acari: Phytoseiidae) is among the smallest known in arthropods

The genome size of the phytoseiid Metaseiulus (=Typhlodromus or Galendromus) occidentalis (Nesbitt) needs to be estimated before the whole nuclear genome can be sequenced. Two different procedures were used to estimate the genome size of M. occidentalis; (1) flow cytometry (Marescalchi et al. in Genome 33:789–793, 1990) and (2) quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) (Wilhelm et al. in Nucleic Acids Res 31:e56, 2003). Fluorescence intensity of propidium iodide-stained nuclei of M. occidentalis was measured by flow cytometry using females, males, and eggs. Only the eggs yielded peaks, which ranged in size from 35 to 160 Mb, with a tall peak of 140 Mb in 1-day-old eggs and 65 Mb in 2-day-old eggs, respectively. However, the peaks are broad and do not provide an accurate estimate. The qRT-PCR procedure required single-copy nuclear gene sequences from this phytoseiid. This was accomplished by designing degenerate primers, amplifying the Actin and EF1α sequences from M. occidentalis, and then designing M. occidentalis-specific primers that amplified a unique sequence. The standard qRT-PCR protocol was inefficient and amplification failed frequently, so we developed a high-fidelity qRT-PCR protocol, which utilizes a mix of two DNA polymerases (Taq and a proof-reading Tgo or ACCUZYME) to consistently amplify sequences. This allowed us to estimate the nuclear genome size of M. occidentalis as 88–90 ± 5 Mb. When compared to other arthropod genomes, this appears to be very small.     

青海土族肤纹学研究

本文报道土族人群的肤纹参数,在知情同意手续下捺印对象的手纹和足纹,样本包括106名男性和108名女性,研究的项目有TFRC、a-b RC,atd,tPD、指纹、指间纹、手大小鱼际,猿线,大拇趾球纹,趾间纹,足小鱼际纹和足跟纹等。为人类学,遗传学和医学提供了较完整的数据集。     

生态足迹的模型修正与方法改进

生态足迹是测定人类活动的资源消费需求,判明自然资产是否被过度利用的有效工具。介绍了生态足迹的基本概念和模型,简单分析基本模型存在的主要缺陷和争论,重点解析了近年来生态足迹模型在参数调整、项目计算、账户扩展等方面的演变和修正。介绍生态足迹研究的传统方法:综合法和组分法,评述了生命周期评价,基于投入产出分析,三维模型,净初级生产力,能值理论,时序分析等的方法改进。对未来的研究方向提出自己的看法,期望对我国的生态足迹研究有一定的启示作用。     

物种急剧丧失·生态严重超载·跨越“地球边界”·区域公平失衡·“一个地球”生活——《地球生命力报告2014》解读

2014年9月30日,世界自然基金会(WWF)、Zoological Society of London(ZSL)、Global Footprint Network、Water Footprint Network联合发布《地球生命力报告2014》,除了以前主要使用的地球生命力指数(Living Planet Index,LPI)、生态足迹(Ecological Footprint,EF)、水足迹(Water Footprint)等指标外,首次使用"地球边界"揭示地球面临的严峻挑战。报告显示:(1)LPI自1970年以来已下降52%,温带和热带地区分别下降36%、56%,陆生和海洋物种均下降39%,淡水物种减少76%;(2)1961年全球生态足迹76亿全球公顷(global hectare,ghm~2)、生物承载力99亿ghm~2、生态盈余23亿ghm~2,2010年全球生态足迹为181亿ghm~2、生物承载力120亿ghm~2、生态赤字61亿ghm~2,1961年碳足迹占人类总生态足迹的36%,2010年碳足迹占比为53%;(3)全球生产水足迹排名中,印度、美国、中国、巴西和俄罗斯以大量的绿水足迹位居前五名;全球200多个河流流域、26亿7千万人每年至少1个月严重缺水;(4)生物多样性丧失、气候变化和氮循环3个"地球边界"被打破,并且已经对人类健康及人类所需要的食物、水和能源产生明显影响;(5)高收入国家将生物多样性丧失及其影响转嫁给低收入国家,这是另一种资源进口方式;大多数高收入国家人均生态足迹均已超过地球上人均可获得的生物承载力,依靠进口其他国家的生物承载力弥补超载;低收入国家生态足迹最小,生态系统却遭受最大破坏,高收入国家较高的人类发展水平是以高生态足迹为代价。报告指出人类对生态系统和生态功能的过度索取,正在危害着人类未来的安康、经济、食物安全、社会稳定乃至生存,特别提到当前人类所作选择和所采取措施的重要性。确保有恢复力、健康的生态环境维持人类繁荣发展,比现在人口增长、资源消耗增加、气候变化和生态退化的警钟更具挑战性。整篇报告可以概括为5个主题:物种急剧丧失、生态严重超载、跨越"地球边界"、区域公平失衡、"一个地球"生活。     

Sediment Heavy Metal Contents,Ostracod Toxicity and Risk Assessment in Tropical Freshwater Lakes,Tamil Nadu,India

ABSTRACT

Coimbatore is one of the industrial cities in Tamil Nadu, India, which has been experiencing rapid urbanization and population growth. Coimbatore is also known for its unique freshwater lakes environment and serves as a rich ecosystem. However, the assessment of heavy metal levels in aquatic environments is limited. This study was aimed to investigate physicochemical parameters, heavy metals level and sources, and ecotoxicity in sediments collected from five different lakes in Coimbatore. The concentrations of heavy metals (Cr, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb) in sediments were determined by Inductive Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS). Hg level was measured using Advanced Mercury Analyzer (AMA). The determined heavy metal concentrations in sediments varied significantly according to the lake location and consistent with local human linked anthropogenic activities. The metal concentrations in urban lakes were exceeding both the Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs) and the probable effect levels” (PELs) mostly; e.g., in sediments from the Lake Ukkadam, the values of 5.08 and 203.32 mg kg-1 dry weight were observed for Hg and Cu, respectively. The ecotoxicity test with ostracods exposed to the sediment samples revealed that mortality ranged between 6 and 23% for countryside lakes and 28 and 88% for the lakes within urban Zone. We used Spearman rank-order correlation and Principal components analysis (PCA) to assess the sources of pollutants and if they related to anthropogenic pressure and eutrophication of lakes. The main sources of heavy metals from studied lakes differed significantly. Urban and industrial effluents were dominant sources in urban lakes. Agricultural runoff, domestic wastes, and natural weathering were responsible for the metal sources in country lakes. This study provides baseline information on the heavy metal pollution status of sediments in the freshwater lakes in Coimbatore, which will be useful for pollution control measures to prevent possible metal sources on these lakes and impose appropriate management practices and continuous monitoring by relevant authorities.     

An accumulative model for the comparative life cycle assessment case study: iron and steel process

Life cycle assessment is a powerful tool in the evaluation of the environmental performance. However, there is no generally accepted methodology. To develop a practical method, an accumulative model for the comparative life cycle assessment is established and applied in the two typical iron and steel processes, the DRI/EF process and the BF/BOF process. The results indicate that the method could quantitatively compare the alternatives. When the DRI/EF process is compared with the BF/BOF process, it is shown that the IREI (integrated relative environmental index) is 60.22% for the production of iron and 52.4% for the production of steel, respectively. The environmental performance of the DRI/EF process is superior to that of the BF/BOF process.     

Factors involved in increased protein synthesis in rat kidney after administration of DDT

Homogenates of kidney cortex obtained from control rats and rats treated with DDT have been separated into microsomes or ribosomes, and into postmicrosomal (S105) supernatant fraction or pH 5 supernatant fraction. The incorporation of [¹⁴C]phenylalanyl-tRNA into peptide was increased when microsomes derived from kidneys of DDT-treated rats were incubated with pH 5 supernatant fraction from control rats. Elongation factors (EF) 1 and 2, necessary for the binding of aminoacyltRNA to ribosomes and for translocation of peptidyl-tRNA from the A site to the P site of ribosomes, were present in the pH 5 supernatant fractions of kidney of control and DDT-treated rats and these fractions were incubated with KCl-washed ribosomes obtained from livers of control rats. The results provided evidence that the increased incorporation observed with the pH 5 supernatant fraction obtained from the DDT-treated animals could not be attributed to decreased ribonuclease activity or to increased elongation factor 2 activity but was due to an increase in elongation factor l activity.     

A cobalt containing protein isolated from Desulfovibrio gigas, a sulfate reducer

A protein which contains a cobalt porphyrin was isolated from the sulfate reducer Desulfovibrio gigas. This protein has a molecular weight of approximately 16,700 daltons and is acidic, having an iso-electric point at 3.7. The N-terminal residue was shown to be threonine, and a cobalt analysis gave 0.8 cobalt atoms/molecule, suggesting the presence of a single prosthetic group. The protein has a violet color with absorption bands typical of a metal porphyrin center with maxima at 420 nm, 580 nm with a shoulder at 550 nm. The ratio $\text{A}{}_{420}\text{(γ)}\text{A}{}_{588}\text{(α)}$ is 2.1. The protein has no electron paramagnetic resonance (e.p.r.) spectrum, and as the visible spectrum suggests, it probably contains diamagnetic Co^III porphyrin. However the cobalt centre appears to be protected from reduction by sodium dithionite or sodium borohydride. Att$\text{e}$mpts at ligand substitution with strong nucleophiles such as CN, causes a slight spectral shift to higher wavelenghts. The cobalt porphyrin can be extracted from the protein with an acidified acetone solution, indicating that it is not covalently bound to the protein.