Orientation in the Ant Paraponera clavata

Visual and nonpheromone olfactory orientation processes of the giant tropical ant Paraponera clavata were investigated in homing foragers which had been previously trained to visit a food source. Experienced foragers can select directions visually, with pheromone trails (Breed et al., 1987), or with environmental odors. High-contrast canopy cues, but not low-contrast lateral landmarks, serve as strong visual orientation cues.     

Structural constraints from residual tensorial couplings in high resolution NMR without an explicit term for the alignment tensor

Structural restraints from residual tensorial couplings in high resolution NMR are usually incorporated into molecular structure calculation programs by an energy penalty function which depends on the knowledge of the alignment tensor. Here, we show that the alignment tensor enters in linear form into such a function. Therefore, the explicit appearance of the alignment tensor can be eliminated from the penalty function. This avoids the necessity of a determination of magnitude and rhombicity of the alignment tensor in the absence of structural information. The price for this procedure is a slightly shallower energy landscape. Simulations in the vicinity of the energy minimum for the backbone of human ubiquitin show that the reduction in curvature is on the order of a few percent.     

Brownian diffusion and electrophoretic transport of double‐stranded DNA in agarose gels

The field free diffusion constant and the electric field dependence of the electrophoretic mobility and molecular orientation of DNA samples from 5 to 164 kilobase pairs in agarose gels from 0.5 to 2% have been measured by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching and birefringence. In conditions where the reptation predictions hold for the field free diffusion, they partially fail for the DNA size dependence of the low field limit of the electrophoretic mobility. The linear field dependencies of the electrophoretic mobility and orientation factor seem to favor the biased reptation model with fluctuations over the standard biased reptation model, which predicts a quadratic field dependence. The quantitative analysis of the molecular parameters shows, however, that most experiments have been carried out at values of the field where the difference between the two models may be less conclusive. The pore size dependence of the different quantities has been given a particular attention and the role of the distribution of pore sizes in the departures from the reptation predictions is discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biopoly 50: 45–59, 1999     

Mitigating the squash effect: sloths breathe easily upside down

Sloths are mammals renowned for spending a large proportion of time hanging inverted. In this position, the weight of the abdominal contents is expected to act on the lungs and increase the energetic costs of inspiration. Here, we show that three-fingered sloths Bradypus variegatus possess unique fibrinous adhesions that anchor the abdominal organs, particularly the liver and glandular stomach, to the lower ribs. The key locations of these adhesions, close to the diaphragm, prevent the weight of the abdominal contents from acting on the lungs when the sloth is inverted. Using ventilation rate and body orientation data collected from captive and wild sloths, we use an energetics-based model to estimate that these small adhesions could reduce the energy expenditure of a sloth at any time it is fully inverted by almost 13%. Given body angle preferences for individual sloths in our study over time, this equates to mean energy saving of 0.8–1.5% across individuals (with individual values ranging between 0.01 and 8.6%) per day. Given the sloth''s reduced metabolic rate compared with other mammals and extremely low energy diet, these seemingly innocuous adhesions are likely to be important in the animal''s energy budget and survival.     

DIVERSITY AND PHYLOGENETIC PLACEMENT OF BRACTEACOCCUS TEREG (CHLOROPHYCEAE,CHLOROPHYTA) BASED ON 18S RIBOSOMAL RNA GENE SEQUENCE DATA1

Sequence data from the nuclear small-subunit ribosomal RNA gene was obtained for nine strains of Bracteacoccus Tereg, representing at least five morphological species and four distinct geographic locations. These, along with sequence data from two additional chlorophycean taxa, Spongiochloris spongiosa Starr and Ascochloris multinucleata Bold et MacEntee, and 48 published sequences from green algal taxa, were used to determine the phylogenetic placement of Bracteacoccus with respect to other chlorophycean green algae. Results support the monophyly of Bracteacoccus strains, contrasting with patterns observed so far for many other coccoid green algae. The range of variation among Bracteacoccus strains is similar to that of other congeners. Basal body orientation in Bracteacoccus has been interpreted as clockwise; however, the 18S data point to a relationship between Bracteacoccus and taxa with the directly opposed configuration of the flagellar apparatus. No close relationship was found to the multinucleated green coccoids with clockwise orientation of basal bodies, such as Spongiochloris, or to those with parallel basal bodies, such as Spermatozopsis. However, 18S data confirm that the motile and vegetative cells of Bracteacoccus are structurally distinct from the representatives of sphaeroplealean families currently studied. It is premature to reclassify Bracteacoccus until 18S comparisons can be made with additional sphaeroplealean taxa and with algae with similar flagellar structure such as Dictyochloris and Heterochlamydomonas.     

叶角、光呼吸和热耗散协同作用减轻大豆幼叶光抑制

研究了大豆叶片逐步展开过程中的色素组成、气体交换、荧光动力学以及叶片角度等特性。随着叶片展开程度的增加 ,叶绿素含量和叶绿素 a/ b比值增加 ;光合速率 (Pn)也增加 ,揭示叶片展开过程中光合机构是逐步完善的。自然状态下 ,不同展开程度的叶片均未发生明显的光抑制 ;但将叶片平展并暴露在 12 0 0μmol/ (m2 · s)光下时幼叶发生严重的光抑制 ,伴随叶面积的增加光抑制程度减轻。强光下 ,尽管幼叶光呼吸 (Pr)的测定值较低 ,但幼叶光呼吸与总光合之比 (Pr/ Pm)较高。将叶片平展置于强光下时 ,幼叶的实际光化学效率 (ΦPSII)明显下调 ,非光化学猝灭 (NPQ)大幅增加 ;幼叶叶黄素库较大 ,光下积累较多的脱环氧化组分 ,揭示幼叶依赖叶黄素循环的热耗散增强。自然条件下测量叶片角度 ,观察到在叶片展开过程中叶柄夹角逐渐增加 ;日动态过程中幼叶的悬挂角随光强增加而明显减小 ,完全展开叶的悬挂角变化幅度很小。叶片角度的变化使实际照射到幼叶叶表的光强减少。推测较强的光呼吸、依赖叶黄素循环的热耗散以及较大的叶角变化可能是自然状态下幼叶未发生严重光抑制的原因     

Mechanism for formation of the secondary wall thickening in tracheary elements: Microtubules and microfibrils of tracheary elements of Pisum sativum L. and Commelina communis L. and the effects of amiprophosmethyl

Arrangements of microfibrils (MFs) and microtubules (MTs) were examined in tracheary elements (TEs) of Pisum sativum L. and Commelina communis L. by production of replicas of cryo-sections, and by immunofluorescence microscopy, respectively. The secondary wall thickenings of TEs of Pisum and Commelina roots have pitted and latticed patterns, respectively. Most MFs in the pitted thickening of Pisum TEs retain a parallel alignment as they pass around the periphery of pits. However, some groups of MFs grow into the pits but then terminate at the edge of the thickening, indicating that cellulose-synthase complexes are inactivated in the plasma membrane under the pit. Microtubules of TEs of both Pisum and Commelina are localized under the secondary thickening and few MTs are detected in the areas between wall thickenings. In the presence of the MT-disrupting agent, amiprophosmethyl, cellulose and hemicellulose, which is specific to secondary thickening, are deposited in deformed patterns in TEs of Pisum roots, Pisum epicotyls and Commelina roots. This indicates that the localized deposition of hemicellulose as well as cellulose involves MTs. The deformed, but heterogeneous pattern of secondary thickening is still visible, indicating that MTs are involved in determining and maintaining the regular patterns of the secondary thickening but not the spatial heterogeneous pattern of the wall deposition. A working hypothesis for the formation of the secondary thickening is proposed.Abbreviations APM amiprophosmethyl - DMSO dimethyl sulfoxide - F-WGA fluorescein-conjugated wheat-germ agglutinin - M F microfibril - MT microtubule - PEG polyethyleneglycol - TE tracheary element I thank Ms. Aiko Hirata (Institute of Applied Microbiology, University of Tokyo, Japan) for help in taking stereomicrographs. This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan.     

MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR VARIATION ACROSS A MIGRATORY DIVIDE IN WILLOW WARBLERS,PHYLLOSCOPUS TROCHILUS

A migratory divide is a narrow region in which two populations showing different migratory directions meet arid presumably also mate and hybridize. Banding of willow warblers, Phylloscopus trochilus, in Europe has demonstrated a migratory divide latitudinally across central Scandinavia. In autumn, southern birds migrate southwest to tropical West Africa, whereas northern birds migrate southeast to East and South Africa. The migratory divide is associated with concordant differences in size and plumage coloration. Based on morphology, we estimate the width of the transition zone between northern and southern willow warblers to be less than 350 km. We found indication of linkage disequilibria around the migratory divide, in that measures of body size were correlated with plumage coloration within the contact zone, but uncorrelated within the populations south or north of the contact zone. The presence of linkage disequilibria and the fact that several morphological clines occur together suggest that the hybrid zone is a result of secondary contact between populations that have differentiated in allopatry. This interpretation is in accord with the knowledge of the recolonization pattern of the Scandinavian peninsula after the last glaciation; animals and plants appeared to have colonized either from the south or from the north around the northern bay of the Baltic Sea. If northern and southern willow warblers resided in allopatric populations during late Pleistocene glaciations and the hybrid zone is a result of postglacial range expansions, we would expect some degree of genetic differentiation accumulated during the period in isolation. In contrast, northern and southern willow warblers are near panmictic in the frequencies of alleles of mitochondrial DNA and at two microsatellite loci. The observed pattern, clear morphological and behavioral differentiation without genetic differentiation at neutral loci, suggests either that the differences are maintained by strong selection on the expressed genes in combination with high levels of current gene flow or, in the case of weak gene flow, that the divergence in morphology and behavior is very recent.     

Pelagic to demersal transition in a coral‐reef fish,the orbicular batfish Platax orbicularis

Behavioural and ecological observations were made on young, reared Platax orbicularis in Opunohu Bay, Moorea, French Polynesia, during their transition from the pelagic, dispersive stage to the reef‐orientated demersal stage. Seventy‐two young P. orbicularis (17–75 mm standard length, L_S) were released in the pelagic zone and 20 (40–70 mm L_S) adjacent to the reefs. Swimming speed was slow (mean 5·2 cm s^?1) and independent of size. An ontogenetic descent was observed: the smallest P. orbicularis swam at the surface, medium‐sized P. orbicularis swam in midwater (mean 5–13 m) and the largest P. orbicularis swam to the bottom, where many lay on their sides. Platax orbicularis swam southerly on average, away from the ocean and into the bay. Smaller P. orbicularis were more likely to swim directionally than larger individuals. Young P. orbicularis released near reef edges swam at similar, but more variable speeds (mean 6·6 cm s^?1). About half of those released near reefs swam away, but fewer swam away from an inshore fringing reef than from a patch reef near the bay mouth. Many P. orbicularis swam up the slope onto the reef top, but the little settlement observed was near the reef base. Average, near‐reef swimming direction was also southerly. Some reef residents, in particular the triggerfish Balistapus undulatus, harassed young P. orbicularis.