Yeast hydrolysate supplement increases starvation vulnerability of Queensland fruit fly

Post‐teneral diets containing yeast hydrolysate are reported to increase longevity, reproductive development and sexual performance of Queensland fruit fly (‘Q‐fly’) Bactrocera tryoni Froggatt (Diptera: Tephritidae). Consequently, diets including yeast hydrolysate are recommended for sterile Q‐flies before release in sterile insect technique (SIT) programmes. However, in some tephritids, diets including yeast hydrolysate are associated with an increased vulnerability to starvation. In the present study, the effects of yeast hydrolysate supplementation before release are considered with respect to the longevity of released Q‐fly when food becomes scarce. Experiments are carried out in three settings of varying resemblance to field conditions: 5‐L laboratory cages, 107‐L outdoor cages and 14 140‐L field cages containing potted citrus trees. In all experimental settings, compared with flies that received only sucrose, male and female Q‐flies that are provided with yeast hydrolysate during the first 2 days of adult life have a significantly shorter survival when subsequently deprived of food. Yeast supplementation appears to commit Q‐flies to a developmental trajectory that renders them more vulnerable to starvation. The practical significance of these findings for SIT depends on how often the releases are carried out under conditions in which Q‐flies experience extreme food shortages in the field.     

Comparison of laboratory and field bioassays of laboratory‐reared Cydia pomonella (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) quality and field performance

Maximum production and fitness of insect species that are mass‐reared for biological control programmes such as the sterile insect technique (SIT) have benefitted from the employment of quality control and quality management. With a growing interest in the use of SIT as a tactic for the suppression/eradication of key lepidopteran pests, such as the codling moth, Cydia pomonella L. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), there is a parallel interest in inexpensive bioassays that can accurately detect differences in insect quality and monitor insect field performance. In this study, we examined laboratory (mating and flight ability) bioassays and field (field cage and open field release) bioassays simultaneously to discern the ability of the different bioassays to predict quality and field performance of codling moths produced in a commercial mass‐rearing facility. Moth quality was degraded by different levels of radiation during the sterilization procedure. Both the laboratory flight bioassay and the field cage bioassay successfully detected quality and performance differences that were relevant to moth performance in the field. However, the study data suggest that the field cage bioassay was a better predictor of the daily performance of males that had been released in the orchard than the laboratory flight bioassay. Conversely, data suggest that the controlled climatic conditions of the laboratory allowed the flight cylinder bioassay to be more sensitive in detecting daily fluctuations in the quality of moths caused by factors within the mass‐rearing facility. Therefore, both laboratory and field bioassays may be required to provide feedback on quality and performance of mass‐reared moths in a SIT programme.     

A Simple Computer-aided Device for Monitoring Activity of Small Mammals and Insects

A simple computer-aided device was developed to record the activity of small animals. The device comprises of aktographs, opto-couplers, opto-amplifier units, a data acquisition unit (‘Activity Monitor’) and a Pentium processor based personal computer (PC) attached to an addition parallel printer port. The aktographs are devices which facilitate organisms to exhibit its natural activity. The aktographs for fruit flies, ants and mice are tubes with food supply and moisture, petri dishes adequately ventilated with arrangements for constant supply of water, sugar or honey solution, and cages attached with running wheels, respectively. Two mutually perpendicular beams of infra-red (IR) emission form a cross-hair detection system across the aktographs and an interruption to these beams creates an electrical signal (‘transition’) which is amplified using the opto-amplifier unit and sent to the activity monitor which consists of shift registers. The number of moments the IR beams are interrupted is taken as a measure of the amount of activity, based on the assumption that a more active animal would interrupt the IR beams more often compared to a less active one. Programs were written in C++, which facilitated data acquisition and graphical representation in terms of a daily plot of amount of activity as a function of time of the day, and actograms of daily activity were arranged chronologically one below the other. The activity patterns of individual animals (fruit fly, ants, and mice) were monitored using this device. Based on the performance and features of this device, we feel that with some improvement in the software this can substitute some of the existing activity recording devices, which are costly and not flexible.     

Advances in the carbon use efficiency of forest

植物碳利用效率(CUE)指净初级生产力与总初级生产力的比率, 它不仅反映了植被生态系统将大气中CO₂转化为生物量的能力和固碳潜力, 而且可确定呼吸对植被生产力的影响。CUE是比较不同生态系统碳循环差异的重要参数, 了解生态系统CUE有助于分析陆地生态系统是碳源还是碳汇, 对于预测全球变化和人类干扰对森林碳收支的影响具有重要意义。我国在森林CUE研究方面还十分欠缺。该文在介绍森林CUE计算方法和测定技术的基础上, 综述了植被、气象、森林经营等因子对森林CUE的影响, 得出主要结论: (1)关于不同森林植被类型CUE变化有两种截然相反的观点, 即: 恒定CUE和变量CUE。越来越多的研究支持第二种观点, 不同生态系统、不同森林类型、不同物种和植物发育阶段的CUE存在较大差异, 森林CUE较灌丛和草地低, 落叶林比混交林和常绿林具有较高的CUE, 热带森林CUE通常低于温带森林, CUE与植被演替和林龄相关, 森林地上、地下部分和不同组织的CUE不同, 以树干为最高; (2)植被的CUE与气温相关, 全球尺度上, 森林植被年平均CUE与年平均气温呈抛物线关系, 温带、寒带、干旱地区植物呼吸的温度适应驱动其较高的CUE; CUE随着降水量的增加而减少, 在水分充足或过剩的地区保持不变; 光照减弱降低维持呼吸系数, 增加生长呼吸系数, 导致植物CUE降低, 生长在高光照下的植物CUE高于低光照下的植物; (3) CO₂浓度升高引起植物CUE的升高或降低, 也有人认为CO₂浓度升高对森林CUE没有影响, CO₂浓度升高对CUE的影响可能取决于树木年龄或基因型; (4)生长在土壤瘠薄、低温、干旱等胁迫环境下的植物CUE通常比生长在适宜环境下的植物具有较大的可塑性, 施肥、灌溉和择伐等管理措施影响森林CUE; (5)植物CUE具有明显的季节变化, 温带森林以春季CUE为最高。建议今后森林CUE研究应着重围绕以下3个关键问题: (1)从不同空间尺度和生态系统层次, 探讨森林CUE的变异特征及其驱动机制; (2)从不同时间尺度, 探讨森林CUE动态过程与机制; (3)森林CUE对气候变化的响应与适应。     

Rhodococcus sp. R04 BphD催化C-C断裂的动力学分析

2-羟基-6-氧-6-苯基己-2,4-二烯酸水解酶（BphD）是一种多氯联苯微生物降解途径中的关键酶. 本文通过紫外-可见光光谱分别对突变酶S110A和H265A催化过程中酶-底物复合物进行检测,同时利用停流光谱技术对BphD及其突变酶（S110A、H265A和W266A）催化底物2-羟基-6-氧-6-苯基己-2,4-二烯酸（HOPDA）前稳态动力学进行了研究.结果表明,在BphD催化C-C断裂过程中,产物2-羟基戊-2,4-二烯酸（HPD）迅速生成,其速率常数为22 S-1. 底物的消耗（速率常数,22022 S-1和803 S-1）及酶-底物复合物的变化（速率常数,55556 S-1和664 S-1）表明该酶催化过程包括2个动力学阶段：快速底物酮基化作用和C-C键断裂过程.紫外-可见光光谱扫描结果显示,在突变酶S110A的催化过程中,酶-底物复合物在492 nm及510 nm处有最大光吸收,而在突变酶H265A催化中,却没有相似的光吸收,只是在480 nm产生1个新肩峰. BphD及其突变酶S110A、H265A和W266A动力学分析表明,Ser-110主要负责底物C-C键断裂;His-265负责底物由烯醇式向酮式转变,并且与Ser-110和Trp-266共同参与了随后的C-C键断裂过程. 结果揭示,除了传统的催化三联体（Ser-110,Asp-237,His-265）外,Trp-266在该水解酶催化反应中也发挥非常重要的作用,这一发现丰富了C-C水解酶的反应动力学机制.     

Reliability of bulky DNA adducts measurement by the nuclease P1 32P-post-labelling technique

The aim was to assess the reliability of bulky DNA adducts measurement by means of the ³²P-post-labelling assay. The research design consisted of an intramethod reliability study. Buffy coats from 41 subjects were used to obtain two aliquots of 1–5 μg DNA for each subject; bulky DNA adducts were measured using the nuclease P1 ³²P-post-labelling technique. The reliability of the measurement was assessed by means of the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), the distribution of the differences between the two measurements and the limits of agreement. The estimated ICC was 0.977, with a 95% confidence interval between 0.921 and 0.977. The limits of agreement were ±0.44 (DNA adducts per 10⁸ nucleotides). Only three subjects had differences lying out of such limits. Bulky DNA adduct levels measured by the ³²P-post-labelling technique showed good reliability. Only one measurement is needed to use DNA adducts as a biomarker of exposure and, possibly, cancer risk. Besides, as a validation analysis, ³²P-post-labelling measurements can be repeated in only 20–30% of samples.     

Carcinogen DNA adducts and the risk of colon cancer: case–control study

Colorectal cancer represents 8.5% of all tumours at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre. Environmental and dietary carcinogens such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heterocyclic amines (HCAs) have long been suspected to play a prominent role in colon cancer aetiology. We designed a case–control study to test the hypothesis of whether or not the presence of DNA adducts can play a role in the aetiology of colon cancer. DNA adducts were measured in 24 cancerous and 20 non-cancerous tissue samples of newly diagnosed colon cancer patients by ³²P-post-labelling technique. Normal tissue from 19 hospital patients served as controls. The mean levels of adducts per 10¹⁰ nucleotides in cancerous and non-cancerous tissue were 151.75±217.27 and 114.81±186.10, respectively; however, only adducts in cancerous tissue were significantly higher than controls (32.78±57.51 per 10¹⁰ nucleotides) with p-values of 0.017. No BPDE-DNA adducts were found. No relationship was found between urinary cotinine as a marker of tobacco smoke and 1-hydroxypyrene as an indicator of an individual's internal dose of PAHs and DNA adducts. In a logistic regression model, only adducts in cancerous tissue were associated with the subsequent risk of colon cancer, with an odds ratio of 3.587 (95% confidence interval 0.833–15.448) after adjustment for age and the duration of living in the current region, but of a borderline significance (p=0.086). Although it is difficult to arrive at a definite conclusion from a small dataset, our preliminary results suggest the potential role of DNA adducts in the colon carcinogenesis process. Additional studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm our preliminary finding. It is also important to identify the structural characterization of these unknown DNA adducts in order to have a better understanding of whether or not environmental carcinogens play a role in the aetiology of colon cancer.     

Seeing and knowing in twenty-first century genetic medicine: the clinical pedigree as epistemological tool and hybrid risk technique

This paper explores the clinical pedigree as a risk technique within the context of the predictive genetic testing (PGT) clinic. We situate the PGT clinic as a site of genetic governance in that it is a site both for the production of knowledge about genetic risk and for intervening in the everyday lives of individuals and their families who learn to cultivate their relations with themselves and their biological relatives in relation to genetic risk knowledge. Drawing on literature of the pedigree as socially constructed and on notions of risk governance, we suggest that the pedigree operates as an epistemological tool and risk technique – that is, as a visual device that assists in organizing the social relations of knowledge production and aids in effecting shifts in patient subjectivity in ways that are consistent with neoliberal notions of active citizenship.     

Evidence of in vivo Free Radical Generation by Spin Trapping with α-Phenyl N-Tert-Butyl Nitrone During Ischemia/Reperfusion in Rabbit Kidneys

By using α-phenyl N-tert-butyl nitrone (PBN) as spin trap molecule and the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) technique, we obtained the first direct evidence of in vivo intervention of free radicals during an ischemia (50 minutes) reperfusion phenomenon in kidney of an intact rabbit.

An EPR signal (triplet of doublets) characterized by coupling constants a_N = 14.75–15 G and a^H_s = 2.5–3 G was detected in blood samples. The signal was consistent with a nitroxyl-radical adduct resulting from the spin trapping by PBN of either oxygen-or carbon-centered radicals. Control experiments indicated that the EPR signal was not due to a toxic effect of the spin trap molecule.     

15-KETE对慢性缺氧大鼠肺动脉平滑肌细胞钾离子通道的作用

目的观察15-酮基二十碳四烯酸（15-ketoeicosatetraenoic acid,15-KETE）对缺氧大鼠肺动脉平滑肌细胞（pulmonary arterial smooth cells,PASMCs）膜电压门控钾离子通道的活性的影响。方法将12只雄性SD大鼠随机分成对照组和缺氧组,每组6只。采用急性酶分离法（胶原酶Ⅰ型和弹性酶）获得SD大鼠单个PASMCs,应用全细胞膜片钳记录方法,研究15-KETE对两组大鼠膜电位（Em）、膜电容（Cm）、电压门控钾电流（IKv）的影响。结果 （1）慢性缺氧使大鼠PASMCs的Em显著去极化（P〈0.05,n=6）,明显地抑制了大鼠PASMCs的IKv（P〈0.01,n=6）,对大鼠PASMCs的Cm无影响;（2）较高浓度的15-KETE（1×10^-7 mol/L、1×10^-6 mol/L）可使慢性缺氧大鼠PASMCs去极化;（3）15-KETE（1×10^-8 mol/L～1×10^-6 mol/L）可浓度依赖性地抑制慢性缺氧大鼠PASMCs的IKv;（4）较高浓度15-KETE（1×10^-7 mol/L、1×10^-6 mol/L）对缺氧PASMCs IKV的平均阻抑率显著高于常氧PASMCs。结论缺氧未改变15-KETE引大鼠PASMCs去极化及浓度依赖抑止IKv的特性,且缺氧可能改变了PASMCs对15-KETE的敏感性。