The Oldowan site Aïn al Fil (El Kowm,Syria) and the first humans of the Syrian Desert

At present, the oldest traces of human cultures are found in Eastern Africa. New discoveries set anew the questions about human and animal dispersal into Eurasia. For over 1.8 million years, humans have been present in the Levant. An extensive program of surveys and excavations in the Syrian Desert showed that this part of the world was a very ancient land of settlement. In Central Syria, the oldest site, Aïn al Fil in the region of El Kowm, was excavated in 2008 and 2010. The lithic industry in the lowest layer can be characterized by numerous unretouched flakes, pebble-tools and core-like artefacts. This assemblage is typical in a broad sense of archaic Palaeolithic the debitage of which corresponds to mode 1. From a techno-typological point of view, this industry tallies quite well with the so-called Oldowan stage. It shows remarkable similarities with the oldest African assemblages. From a chronologic point of view, these levels occur before three positive events in the Matuyama paleomagnetic sequence. It seems consistent to place the Oldowan sequence around 1.8 Ma BP within the Olduvai subchron or just before Olduvai/Matuyama reversal limit. Together with those of the neighbouring site Hummal, these levels would be the oldest traces of human presence ever found in Syria. In the Levant, the first humans not only occupied favourable zones but regularly ventured deep into less welcoming environments suggesting an astonishing flexibility in their behavioural and survival skills.     

Not putting all their eggs in one basket: bet‐hedging despite extraordinary annual reproductive output of desert tortoises

Bet‐hedging theory makes the counter‐intuitive prediction that, if juvenile survival is low and unpredictable, organisms should consistently reduce short‐term reproductive output to minimize the risk of reproductive failure in the long‐term. We investigated the long‐term reproductive output of an Agassiz's desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) population and conformance to a bet‐hedging strategy of reproduction in an unpredictable but comparatively productive environment. Most females reproduced every year, even during periods of low precipitation and poor germination of food plants, and the mean percentage of reproducing females did not differ significantly on an annual basis. Although mean annual egg production (clutch size × clutch frequency) differed significantly among years, mean clutch size and mean clutch frequency remained relatively constant. During an El Niño year, mean annual egg production and mean annual clutch frequency were the highest ever reported for this species. Annual egg production was positively influenced by maternal body size but clutch size and clutch frequency were not. Our long‐term results confirm earlier conclusions based on short‐term research that desert tortoises have a bet‐hedging strategy of producing small clutches almost every year. The risk of long‐term reproductive failure is minimized in unpredictable environments, both through time by annually producing multiple small clutches over a long reproductive lifespan, even in years of low resource availability, and through space by depositing multiple annual clutches in different locations. The extraordinary annual reproductive output of this population appears to be the result of a typically high but unpredictable biomass of annual food plants at the site relative to tortoise habitat in dryer regions. Under the comparatively productive but unpredictable conditions, tortoises conform to predictions of a bet‐hedging strategy of reproduction with relatively small but consistent clutch sizes. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, 115 , 399–410.     

The circadian clock genes affect reproductive capacity in the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria

The circadian clocks govern many metabolic and behavioral processes in an organism. In insects, these clocks and their molecular machinery have been found to influence reproduction in many different ways. Reproductive behavior including courtship, copulation and egg deposition, is under strong influence of the daily rhythm. At the molecular level, the individual clock components also have their role in normal progress of oogenesis and spermatogenesis. In this study on the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria, three circadian clock genes were identified and their expression profiles were determined. High expression was predominantly found in reproductive tissues. Similar daily expression profiles were found for period (per) and timeless (tim), while the clock (clk) mRNA level is higher 12 h before the first per and tim peak. A knockdown of either per or tim resulted in a significant decrease in the progeny produced by dsRNA treated females confirming the role of clock genes in reproduction and providing evidence that both PER and TIM are needed in the ovaries for egg development. Since the knockdown of clk is lethal for the desert locust, its function remains yet to be elucidated.     

塔克拉玛干沙漠南缘3种果树幼苗光合及抗逆性研究

于2010年7~8月份,以塔克拉玛干沙漠南缘绿洲-荒漠过渡带人工种植的桑树(Morus albaL.)、沙枣(Elaeagnus angustifoliaL.)和杏树(Prunus armeniacaL.)幼苗为材料,研究了它们在相同生境条件下光合响应特征、水势、脯氨酸和可溶性糖含量等生理指标的变化,并用隶属函数值法对3种果树幼苗的抗旱性进行综合评价。结果表明:(1)3种果树幼苗光响应曲线具有相同的变化规律,当光合有效辐射(PAR)在0~200μmol.m-2.s-1之间变化时,净光合速率(A)随着PAR的增大呈直线增大,当PAR>200μmol.m-2.s-1时,A随PAR的变化呈二次曲线变化;(2)3种果树幼苗的光响应参数最大光合速率(Amax)、曲角(K)、表观量子效率(φ)、暗呼吸速率(Rday)、光饱和点(LSP)、光补偿点(LCP)以及光合色素的变化趋势并不完全一致,其中桑树具有最大的Amax、φ、Rday和叶绿素含量,而杏树的LSP最高,LCP最低,因此桑树具有最大的光能利用效率,而杏树能更有效地利用强光进行光合作用;(3)3种果树幼苗脯氨酸(Pro)、可溶性糖以及丙二醛(MDA)含量,除沙枣和杏树之间可溶性糖含量差异不显著外,其他指标含量差异在3种果树之间均达到显著水平(P<0.05);(4)在本研究期间3种果树的抗逆性表现为沙枣>桑树>杏树。研究发现,塔克拉玛干沙漠南缘绿洲-荒漠过渡带的3种果树幼苗光响应曲线变化趋势基本一致,体现了植物对环境条件适应的一致性,但是各个生理指标的变化趋势并不完全一致,这可能是由于植物种对环境条件的适应差异所导致。     

Effect of ultraviolet radiation on chlorophyll,carotenoid, protein and proline contents of some annual desert plants

Investigation was carried out to find whether enhanced ultraviolet radiation influences the Malva parviflora L., Plantago major L., Rumex vesicarius L. and Sismbrium erysimoids Desf. of some annual desert plants. The seeds were grown in plastic pots equally filled with a pre-sieved normal sandy soil for 1 month. The planted pots from each species were randomly divided into equal groups (three groups). Plants of the first group exposed to white-light tubes (400–700 nm) 60 w and UV (365 nm) 8 w tubes. The second group was exposed to white-light tubes (400–700 nm) 60 w and UV (302 nm) 8 w tubes. The third group was exposed to white-light tubes (400–700 nm) 60 w and UV (254 nm) 8 w tubes, respectively, for six days. The results indicated that the chlorophyll contents were affected by enhanced UV radiation. The chlorophyll a, b, and total contents were decreased compared with the control values and reduced with the enhanced UV radiation, but the carotenoid was increased compared with the control and also reduced with the enhanced UV radiation. So, the contents of chlorophylls varied considerably. M. parviflora showed the highest constitutive levels of accumulated chlorophyll a, b, and total chlorophyll (0.463, 0.307 and 0.774 mg g⁻¹ f w) among the investigated plant species. P. major showed the lowest constitutive levels of the chloroplast pigments, 0.0036, 0.0038 and 0.0075 mg g⁻¹ f w for chlorophyll a, b, and total chlorophyll at UV-365 nm, respectively. The protein content was decreased significantly in both root and shoot systems compared with the control values but, it was increased with increasing wave lengths of UV-radiation of all tested plants. R. vesicarius showed the highest protein contents among the investigated plants; its content was 3.8 mg g⁻¹ f w at UV-365 nm in shoot system. On the other hand, decreasing ultraviolet wave length induced a highly significant increase in the level of proline in both root and shoot of all tested plants. From the results obtained, it is suggested that proline can protect cells against damage induced by ultraviolet radiation. Statistically, the variations of the studied metabolic activities were significant due to UV radiation treatment in shoot and root system of all investigated plant species.     

Distribution of osmoregulatory peptides and neuronal-glial configuration in the hypothalamic magnocellular nuclei of desert rodents

The desert rodents Psammomys obesus and Gerbillus tarabuli live under extreme conditions and overcome food and water shortage by modes of food and fluid intake specific to each species. Using immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy, we found that the hypothalamic magnocellular nuclei, and in particular, their vasopressinergic component, is highly and similarly developed in Psammomys and Gerbillus. In comparison to other rodents, the hypothalamus in both species contains more magnocellular VP neurons that, together with oxytocin neurons, accumulate in distinct and extensive nuclei. As in dehydrated rodents, many magnocellular neurons contained both neuropeptides. A striking feature of the hypothalamic magnocellular system of Psammomys and Gerbillus was its display of ultrastructural properties related to heightened neurosecretion, namely, a significant reduction in glial coverage of neuronal somata and dendrites in the hypothalamic nuclei. There were many neuronal elements whose surfaces were directly juxtaposed and shared the same synapses. Their magnocellular nuclei also showed a high level of sialylated isoform of the Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule (PSA-NCAM) that underlies their capacity for neuronal and glial plasticity. These species thus offer striking models of structural neuronal and glial plasticity linked to natural conditions of heightened neurosecretion.