Conspectus of Italian Selaginella (Selaginellaceae), with some typifications

An annotated synonymic inventory of Italian Selaginella taxa, a practical key for their identification and their dot distribution maps are presented, as a result of our work on the Selaginellaceae account for the Flora Critica d'Italia. The names Lycopodium helveticum L. and Selaginella denticulata var. platystachya Hieron. are typified.     

Detection of Prothrombin and Osteopontin in a Renal Stone Found in a Hyperuricemic Patient Using 2D‐PAGE and LC‐MS Analysis

The liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry (LC‐MS) following on from the two‐dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D‐PAGE) technique was applied for the analysis of proteins in a renal stone found in a hyperuricemic patient. This technique was sensitive enough to detect small quantities of proteins even in a renal stone.     

三株芽胞杆菌菌株对松材线虫低温存活与繁殖的影响

为明确细菌在松材线虫生态适应性中的作用,本研究选择与致病相关的松材线虫伴生细菌GD1、马尾松内生细菌GD2以及具有杀松材线虫活性的湿地松内生细菌NJSZ-13为试验对象,测定经这3株芽胞杆菌菌株3个浓度低温驯化10、15和20 d后,在冷冻条件下松材线虫强毒虫株AMA3、中毒虫株AA3和弱毒虫株YW4的存活率和繁殖量。结果表明：低温驯化15 d和20 d后3株菌株对不同毒力线虫的活力影响较驯化10 d后的更显著。在低温驯化15 d、-20℃冷冻处理1 h后,5×10⁶ CFU/mL浓度菌株GD1处理下,虫株AMA3、AA3和YW4的存活率分别为77.22%、83.68%和84.26%,与对照差异显著;5×10⁵ CFU/mL浓度菌株GD1处理下,虫株AMA3、AA3和YW4的存活率分别为75.76%、80.67%和81.50%,与对照差异显著。5×10⁶ CFU/mL和5×10⁵ CFU/mL浓度菌株GD2处理下,与GD1处理组结果相似,菌株NJSZ-13处理组则与菌株GD1和GD2的结果相反。低温驯化15 d、-20℃冷冻处理1 h后,5×10⁶ CFU/mL浓度菌株GD1处理下,虫株AMA3、AA3和YW4的繁殖量分别为7 530、9 317和12 793条/皿,与对照（3 192、3 840和5 823条/皿）差异显著;5×10⁵ CFU/mL浓度菌株GD1处理时,3个虫株的繁殖量均与对照差异显著。而菌株GD2和NJSZ-13处理后,3个虫株的繁殖量均无显著变化。表明不同芽胞杆菌对松材线虫的低温适应性影响存在差异,松材线虫伴生细菌GD1和马尾松内生细菌GD2能增强其低温适应性,而湿地松内生细菌NJSZ-13菌株则相反。     

Serological detection of Sharka quarantine disease (Plum pox virus) on stone fruit trees in Golestan province

Sharka disease is one of the most damaging diseases of fruit trees in the world, which is caused by Plum pox virus (PPV) that belongs to the genus Potyvirus in the family Potyviridae. Each year, this virus decreases the yield and causes substantial economic damages to its host plants worldwide. This virus is quarantined in Iran but in recent years, suspicious symptoms of the disease were observed in different grown areas, such as Golestan province. During 2010, 420 samples with mosaic, chlorosis, necrosis, ring pattern, blotches, etc. symptoms were collected from the gardens in Golestan province that included 100 samples from plum, 100 from peach and 240 from nectarine. These samples were evaluated using a double-antibody sandwich-ELISA (DAS-ELISA) method and a polyclonal antibody. The results of this survey indicated that among the total of 420 samples, none of them showed positive reaction in DAS-ELISA test.     

Prunus necrotic ringspot virus: incidence on stone and pome fruits and diversity analysis

Stone fruits and pome fruits are cultivated commercially worldwide. In India, they are grown in temperate regions, which mainly includes Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and some North-Eastern states. In this study, an attempt has been made to identify the Prunus necrotic ringspot virus (PNRSV) infecting stone and pome fruits in India and to characterise them on the molecular level. Surveys were conducted in the temperate fruit-growing areas and incidence of PNRSV was detected by serological and molecular means in almond, apple, cherry, nectarine, peach, plum and wild cherry. Further diversity analysis of PNRSV was performed using bioinformatics tools such as clustalW, DNA Data Bank of Japan, MultAlin and Recombination Detection Programme. PNRSV was detected in plum, peach, cherry, almond, nectarine, wild cherry and apple. In the diversity analysis study on the basis of coat protein gene, it was found that the isolates showed identity levels from 82 to 100%. In a plum isolate, a stretch of amino acids from 207 to 221 was found variable from Indian and other isolates. In one of the Indian apple isolates, “NR” repeats at 41–44 position (characteristic of PV-32 group, Group I) were identified. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that Indian isolates are falling in Group-I. Movement protein was also amplified from peach and multiple alignment studies showed that N-terminus was mostly conserved, whereas the C-terminal was highly variable.     

Pest management in Otago

Abstract

The Otago Regional Council could perhaps be renamed the Otago Rabbit Council. Some 35% of our budget—$8 million—goes annually towards dealing with rabbits, which certainly meet the definition of a pest (an animal which “disrupts management objectives” and lives at a population density exceeding “what society considers to be an acceptable level”). We can only hope that the day will come when we can, with confidence, say that the problem is being solved and when public and private financial inputs into rabbit control can be set at a far more reasonable level.     

2‐(Undecyloxy)‐ethanol is a major component of the male‐produced aggregation pheromone of Monochamus sutor

The small white‐marmorated longicorn beetle, Monochamus sutor (L.) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), is widely distributed throughout Europe and Asia. It is a potential vector of the pine wood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Steiner et Buhrer) Nickle, the causal agent of the devastating pine wilt disease. Volatiles were collected from both male and female beetles after maturation feeding. In analyses of these collections using gas chromatography (GC) coupled to mass spectrometry, a single male‐specific compound was detected and identified as 2‐(undecyloxy)‐ethanol. In analyses by GC coupled to electroantennography the only consistent responses from both female and male antennae were to this compound. Trapping tests were carried out in Spain, Sweden, and China. 2‐(Undecyloxy)‐ethanol was attractive to both male and female M. sutor beetles. A blend of the bark beetle pheromones ipsenol, ipsdienol, and 2‐methyl‐3‐buten‐2‐ol was also attractive to both sexes in Spain and Sweden, and further increased the attractiveness of the 2‐(undecyloxy)‐ethanol. The host plant volatiles α‐pinene, 3‐carene, and ethanol were weakly attractive, if at all, in all three countries and did not significantly increase the attractiveness of the blend of 2‐(undecyloxy)‐ethanol and bark beetle pheromones. 2‐(Undecyloxy)‐ethanol is thus proposed to be the major, if not only, component of the male‐produced aggregation pheromone of M. sutor, and its role is discussed. This compound has been reported as a pheromone of several other Monochamus species and is another example of the parsimony that seems to exist among the pheromones of many of the Cerambycidae. Traps baited with 2‐(undecyloxy)‐ethanol and bark beetle pheromones should be useful for monitoring and control of pine wilt disease, should M. sutor be proven to be a vector of the nematode.     

Long-tailed macaques select mass of stone tools according to food type

Tool selection can affect the success of a tool-based feeding task, and thus tool-using animals should select appropriate tools when processing foods. We performed a field experiment on Piak Nam Yai Island in Laem Son National Park, Thailand, to test whether Burmese long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea) selected stone tools according to food type. We baited the island''s shores with stone sets (‘tool tests’) in an effort to attract macaques to use stones presented in a quasi-experimental design. Tool tests were placed at 344 locations for 126 days over a 2 year period, with each set containing four stones of different mass (categories: X, 40–60 g; S, 90–100 g; M, 150–200 g; and L, 400–1000 g). Tool tests were checked when we could access them. The number of times each tool test was checked varied (1–32), for a total of 1950 checks. We also studied 375 non-experimental stone tools that were found at naturally occurring tool-use sites. Our data were not collected by direct observation, but by inspecting stones after use. We found an association between stone mass and food type. In the tool tests, we found S-stones were chosen most often for attached oysters, and L-stones were chosen most often for unattached foods. L-stones were almost always chosen for larger unattached foods (greater than 3 cm length), while for smaller unattached foods (less than or equal to 3 cm length) selection was less skewed to L-stones and more evenly distributed between the M- and L-stone categories. In the non-experimental study, we found that mass varied significantly across five food categories (range: 16–5166 g). We reveal more detail on macaque stone tool mass than previous studies, showing that macaques select differing stone masses across a variety of tool-processed foods. Our study is the first step in investigating the behavioural and cognitive mechanisms that macaques are using during tool selection.     

Temperature-related sex allocation shifts in a recovering keystone species,Pinus palustris

Summary

In the light of all that has been discovered about the mechanism of evolution it has become tempting to follow Darwin's lead and to “see no limit to this power“. Yet a careful examination of situations in which evolution is known to be occurring in some species, shows complete absence of evolution in others. This not because these species have not had the opportunity; in many situations there may even be uncolonised bare space.

The explanation must lie in the supply of appropriate variation. A tacit assumption of evolution by natural selection is that the necessary variation is always available. Yet there is no a priori justification for this. Evidence from populations in nature, particularly of species which are potential colonists of old metal mine workings and similar metal contaminated habitats, shows that the species that successfully colonise these habitats, by the evolution of metal tolerant populations, possess within their normal populations the necessary variation. But those species which fail to colonise these habitats, despite the opportunity, do not possess this variation. This applies also at the level of the population, in the replicated evolutionary situations occurring under electricity pylons.

Such evidence, together with arguments from theory, suggests that the failures of evolution have been as important as its successes in moulding the living world as we see it today, and that the reasons for failure must be sought at the molecular level in limitations to the origin of new variation.     

Canopy cover and understory composition determine abundance of Vaccinium myrtillus L., a key plant for capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), in subalpine forests in the Pyrenees

Background: The dwarf shrub Vaccinium myrtillus – with high cover, height, and fruit production – benefits capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus).

Aims: Our aim was to quantify landscape (e.g. elevation, geographic location, and precipitation), site (e.g. overstorey cover and stoniness) and very fine scale factors (e.g. spatial associations in the understorey) that affect cover, height, and fruit production of V. myrtillus in subalpine forests in thePyrenees, with understorey usually dominated by Rhododendron ferrugineum.

Methods: We sampled 155 plots (0.5 m × 5 m) in six sites. For each plot, in the understorey layer, we assessed species cover, height for R. ferrugineum and V. myrtillus, number of total fruits in V. myrtillus, and spatial associations among V. myrtillus and the remaining cover types.

Results: Overstorey cover negatively influenced V. myrtillus cover, its height, and particularly, the number of fruits, which was also negatively influenced by R. ferrugineum cover. Associations between R. ferrugineum and V. myrtillus were site dependent, while V. myrtillus showed mostly positive associations with grasses and mosses.

Conclusions: Reducing overstorey and R. ferrugineum cover has the strongest positive effect on increasing V. myrtillus fruit production, but with additional positive effects on V. myrtillus cover and height. Increases in grass and moss coverage could favour V. myrtillus.