RECONSTRUCTING THE COMPLEX EVOLUTIONARY ORIGIN OF WILD ALLOPOLYPLOID TOBACCOS (NICOTIANA SECTION SUAVEOLENTES)

Nicotiana (Solanaceae) provides an ideal system for understanding polyploidization, a pervasive and powerful evolutionary force in plants, as this genus contains several groups of allotetraploids that formed at different times from different diploid progenitors. However, the parental lineages of the largest group of allotetraploids, Nicotiana section Suaveolentes, have been problematic to identify. Using data from four regions of three low‐copy nuclear genes, nuclear ribosomal DNA, and regions of the plastid genome, we have reconstructed the evolutionary origin of sect. Suaveolentes and identified the most likely diploid progenitors by using a combination of gene trees and network approaches to uncover the most strongly supported evidence of species relationships. Our analyses best support a scenario where a member of the sect. Sylvestres lineage acted as the paternal progenitor and a member of either sect. Petunioides or sect. Noctiflorae that also contained introgressed DNA from the other, or a hypothetical hybrid species between these two sections, was the maternal progenitor. Nicotiana exemplifies many of the factors that can complicate the reconstruction of polyploid evolutionary history and highlights how reticulate evolution at the diploid level can add even greater complexity to allopolyploid genomes.     

The influence of the progamic phase for fruiting in the apple tree

Final fruit production is the result of a number of processes, over which several environmental circumstances interact. But it is often difficult to disentangle the part played by each of these factors in the final crop. The aim of this work is to evaluate the influence of the progamic phase for fruiting in the apple tree. For this purpose we track back the process that goes from flower to fruit, identifying the inflection points where the final crop is reduced. We evaluate early versus late fruit development, pollination versus non‐pollination, and the effect of the progamic phase that goes from pollination to fertilization. From flowers to fruits 15 weeks elapsed, but the final fruit set settled 8 weeks after flowering, and the main flower–fruit drop occurred 3–4 weeks after flowering. Differences between dropped fruits and those that remained in the tree emerged earlier, and the onset of fruiting started 7 days after pollination. This time was coincident with the time lapse of the progamic phase. These results show that fruiting gets established well ahead of cropping, but also that the progamic phase is the main determinant of the final fruit set in apple trees.     

Relating Phylogenetic Trees to Transmission Trees of Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Transmission events are the fundamental building blocks of the dynamics of any infectious disease. Much about the epidemiology of a disease can be learned when these individual transmission events are known or can be estimated. Such estimations are difficult and generally feasible only when detailed epidemiological data are available. The genealogy estimated from genetic sequences of sampled pathogens is another rich source of information on transmission history. Optimal inference of transmission events calls for the combination of genetic data and epidemiological data into one joint analysis. A key difficulty is that the transmission tree, which describes the transmission events between infected hosts, differs from the phylogenetic tree, which describes the ancestral relationships between pathogens sampled from these hosts. The trees differ both in timing of the internal nodes and in topology. These differences become more pronounced when a higher fraction of infected hosts is sampled. We show how the phylogenetic tree of sampled pathogens is related to the transmission tree of an outbreak of an infectious disease, by the within-host dynamics of pathogens. We provide a statistical framework to infer key epidemiological and mutational parameters by simultaneously estimating the phylogenetic tree and the transmission tree. We test the approach using simulations and illustrate its use on an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. The approach unifies existing methods in the emerging field of phylodynamics with transmission tree reconstruction methods that are used in infectious disease epidemiology.     

授粉处理对红富士苹果果实品质影响的综合评价

以“长富2号”红富士苹果(Malus domestica ‘Red Fuji',Nagafu No. 2)为母本,9个授粉品种为父本,进行人工授粉,研究授粉处理对红富士苹果成熟期果实品质的影响,并构建基于主成分分析的综合评价函数。结果表明:果实的花青苷、单果重、维生素C、固酸比、可溶性糖、可溶性蛋白、可滴定酸等主要经济性状,各授粉处理间差异较大,果形指数、硬度差异较小; 主成分分析提取6个主成分,累计方差贡献率达96.02%,根据主成分得分和方差相对贡献率构建综合评价函数,由综合评价函数确定9个授粉处理果实的综合品质由高到低的排序为雪球、美红、火焰、红星、道格、全家红、绚丽、荷红、粉芽。     

MHO对苹果虎皮病发生和果皮活性氧代谢的影响

为研究6-甲基-5-庚烯-2酮(MHO)诱导苹果虎皮病发病以及对果皮活性氧代谢的影响,该实验将冷藏210d的红星苹果用0.5、1.0、2.0mL/L的MHO进行外源处理后,测定其内源MHO含量,在25℃下放置10d后,期间定期测定货架期果皮中的MDA、O2.-、H2O2含量,以及PPO、SOD、CAT、POD活性的变化。结果表明,随着MHO处理浓度的增加,红星苹果果皮中MDA、O2.-、H2O2的含量也随之增加;果皮中的PPO活性逐渐上升,SOD、CAT、POD的活性随着MHO的处理浓度增加而降低;随着MHO处理浓度的增加,果实虎皮病的发病率也随之升高,同时果皮内源MHO含量也随之逐渐增加。研究认为,外源MHO可能通过降低抗氧化酶活性进而参与苹果虎皮病的发病过程。     

桂西南喀斯特山地蚬木幼龄植株的天然更新

分析了桂西南喀斯特山地蚬木幼龄植株的结构特征、空间分布格局和生长动态,以及影响其种群更新的环境因子.结果表明: 该区域的幼龄蚬木种群为稳定型,种群空间分布格局呈集群型分布;幼龄植株的地径和株高生长趋势相同,且地径随株高的增长而增加,实生苗的地径和株高生长受到种群密度的抑制;群落乔木和灌木层对蚬木幼龄植株的更新有重要影响,而草本层的影响不显著;岩石裸露率对蚬木天然更新未产生显著影响,不同坡度、坡位上蚬木幼龄植株的株高和地径的差异极显著,不同坡向植株的密度、株高和地径差异极显著.蚬木的天然更新受到物种的生物学特性,种内、种间竞争,生境异质性及人为干扰等因素的综合影响.     

Evaluation of an indigenous parasitoid Habrobracon gelechiae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) for biological control of light brown apple moth Epiphyas postvittana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in California

Light brown apple moth, Epiphyas postvittana (Walker), is a newly invasive pest in California. Habrobracon gelechiae Ashmead is an indigenous North American ectoparasitoid of lepidopterans. Using E. postvittana as the host, we determined H. gelechiae host stage preference for oviposition and suitability for larval growth: the parasitoid attacked second to fifth instars, but preferred older (third to fifth) host larvae for oviposition, laying more eggs per clutch on the largest (fifth instar). Offspring survival was better on larger (third to fifth instars) hosts. Adult survival and fecundity and immature temperature development were studied at three key temperatures. At 12°C, H. gelechiae failed to oviposit. At 22 and 30°C, H. gelechiae had, respectively, egg to adult developmental times of 15.4 and 8.7 days, adult female survival of 54.8 and 27.2 days, lifetime parasitism of 39.9 and 21.8 hosts and 181 and 151 eggs per female, an intrinsic rate of increase of 0.107 and 0.165, and mean generation time 30.7 and 18.9 days. We studied intraguild interactions with the endoparasitoid Meteorus ictericus Nees, and found that H. gelechiae did not discriminate against hosts that were parasitised by M. ictericus. Neither the paralysing venom injected by H. gelechiae or the presence of the ectoparasitoid's eggs or larvae arrested M. ictericus development. We also conducted a field release of H. gelechiae on two plant species commonly infested by E. postvittana and showed that H. gelechiae was able to locate and attack moth larvae on both hosts.     

Tropical rain forest conservation and the twin challenges of diversity and rarity

Data from a global network of large, permanent plots in lowland tropical forests demonstrate (1) that the phenomenon of tropical tree rarity is real and (2) that almost all the species diversity in such forests is due to rare species. Theoretical and empirically based reasoning suggests that many of these rare species are not as geographically widespread as previously thought. These findings suggest that successful strategies for conserving global tree diversity in lowland tropical forests must pay much more attention to the biogeography of rarity, as well as to the impact of climate change on the distribution and abundance of rare species. Because the biogeography of many tropical tree species is poorly known, a high priority should be given to documenting the distribution and abundance of rare tropical tree species, particularly in Amazonia, the largest remaining tropical forested region in the world.     

松褐天牛产卵刻痕在黑松树干上分布规律的研究

调查和分析了松褐天牛Monochamus alternatusHope的产卵刻槽在寄主植物黑松上的分布情况,结果表明：产卵刻槽分布与寄主胸径和树高有一定的相关关系,黑松树干胸径在9～15 cm之间,树高在4～7 m之间最适合天牛产卵危害,其中在胸径9～13 cm范围内产卵刻槽数量最多,在此范围的寄主受天牛为害最重。天牛在胸径＞17 cm或树高＞7 m时,没有产卵刻槽分布。产卵刻槽集中分布于树干1～2 m位置,3 m以上很少有刻槽分布,同时,天牛产卵多在光线充足的地方,其中南面产卵刻槽数量最多。     

Further records for Skye

As one of the most conspicuous boundaries between different types of ecosystem, the alpine timberline has attracted the interest of researchers in Innsbruck for more than 85 years. It is evident that the tree life form here reaches its absolute limit and is constrained by the harsh environment. However, the nature of constraints is less obvious and requires detailed ecophysiological analyses as exemplified in this review, which concentrates on the Central Tyrolean Alps. After focusing on the timberline environment, effects of elevation on the water relations and the CO₂ gas exchange of timberline-associated conifer species will be outlined towards conclusions on tree growth and treeline fluctuations. Presently, temperature is suggested to be the key environmental factor in determining the transition from forests to alpine shrub and grassland. As many physiological aspects are influenced directly or indirectly by the temperature regime at the alpine timberline, tree life at the timberline exists close to a number of physiological limits which interact to determine the position of the alpine timberline and modulate the upper boundary of tree life. Nevertheless, understanding of the altitude of the treeline must also consider seedling establishment, especially when evaluating treeline advances and global change effects in a changing environment.