双峰驼肾重吸收机能的细胞学证据

电镜下观察了18峰双峰驼（Camelus bactrianus)肾脏细胞的超微结构,探究驼肾重吸收机能的形态学证据。结果显示,驼肾近曲小管的刷状缘高而密集,上皮细胞胞质顶端具有丰富的管泡结构,侧基底指状突起和基底质膜内褶多而明显,板状嵴线粒体发达。远曲小管和远直小管游离面微绒毛短而稀少,胞质线粒体排列密集,质膜内褶更为发达。集合小管上皮包括多量的亮细胞和少量的暗细胞两种类型,亮细胞结构简单,线粒体稀少,暗细胞线粒体密集,由皮质至髓质,暗细胞数量呈递减趋势,但内髓仍见暗细胞分布。皮质间质极少,志细血管丰富,管壁内皮菲薄有孔。髓质直小血管亦为有孔内皮。上述结构特征表明,双峰驼具有很强的重吸收能力,与其节水耐干渴特性相适应。     

Analysis of asymmetries in the African fruit bats Eidolon helvum and Rousettus egyptiacus (Mammalia: Megachiroptera) from the islands of the Gulf of Guinea. I. Variance and size components of bilateral variation

A set of cranial characters was examined in the fruit bats Rousettus egyptiacus and Eidolon helvum to compare trends and relative importance of major components of bilateral morphometric variation, and their relationship with character size. Using two‐way, sides‐by‐individuals ANOVA , four components of variation were estimated for each bilateral variable: individual variation (I), directional asymmetry (DA), non‐directional asymmetry (NDA) and measurement error (E). Both species exhibit similar major trends of variation in asymmetry across characters, as shown by principal component analysis, using variance components as variables. Degree of interspecific congruence among characters was confirmed by a two‐way ANOVA with species and variance components as fixed factors. Congruence of asymmetry patterns between species suggests that the concept of population asymmetry parameter (PAP) could be extended to higher hierarchies. PAPs above the species level may result from common mechanisms or similar developmental constraints acting on species’ buffering capacities and morphological integration processes.     

Three dimensional in vitro culture of preantral follicles following slow-freezing and vitrification of mouse ovarian tissue

To evaluate the effects slow-freezing and vitrification on three dimensional in vitro culture of preantral follicles, ovaries of 12–14 days old female NMRI mice were isolated and randomly assigned to fresh control, slow-freezing and vitrification groups. Slow-freezing was performed using programmable freezer. Vitrification was carried out in a medium consisting of ethylene glycol (EG) and dimethyl sulphoxide (Me₂SO) by needle immersion method. middle sized preantral follicles were mechanically isolated and cultured for 12 days in 0.7% sodium alginate gel. The follicles development and quantitative expression of oocyte specific genes (Bmp15, Gdf9, Fgf8) and the growth related genes (Igf1, Kit, Kit-l) were assessed after 1, 8 and 12 days of culture. Both cryopreserved groups showed reduction of follicular survival rates compared to the control group on days 8 and 12 of culture (P < 0.05). Antrum formation rates reduced in slow-freezing after 12 days of culture (P < 0.05). Evaluation of gene expression showed reduction of Bmp15, Gdf9, Fgf8, Kit and Kit-l during 12 days of culture (P < 0.05). Kit and Kit-l expression in slow-freezing group significantly reduced on day 8 of culture (p < 0.05). Igf1 expression was lower in slow-freezing group on 1st day of culture than vitrification and control groups (P < 0.05). Finally, intergroup comparison showed same expression pattern of genes after 12 days of culture. Thus, cryopreservation of mouse ovaries by both methods can preserve most developmental parameters and expression of maturation genes. However, vitrification is a better method for cryopreservation of mouse ovaries due to greater antrum formation and expression of growth related markers.     

Curiously Modern DNA for a ``250 Million-Year-Old' Bacterium

Studies of ancient DNA have attracted considerable attention in scientific journals and the popular press. Several of the more extreme claims for ancient DNA have been questioned on biochemical grounds (i.e., DNA surviving longer than expected) and evolutionary grounds (i.e., nucleotide substitution patterns not matching theoretical expectations for ancient DNA). A recent letter to Nature from Vreeland et al. (2000), however, tops all others with respect to age and condition of the specimen. These researchers extracted and cultured a bacterium from an inclusion body from what they claim is a 250 million-year (Myr)-old salt crystal. If substantiated, this observation could fundamentally alter views about bacterial physiology, ecology and evolution. Here we report on molecular evolutionary analyses of the 16S rDNA from this specimen. We find that 2-9-3 differs from a modern halophile, Salibacillus marismortui, by just 3 unambiguous bp in 16S rDNA, versus the ∼59 bp that would be expected if these bacteria evolved at the same rate as other bacteria. We show, using a Poisson distribution, that unless it can be shown that S. marismortui evolves 5 to 10 times more slowly than other bacteria for which 16S rDNA substitution rates have been established, Vreeland et al.'s claim would be rejected at the 0.05 level. Also, a molecular clock test and a relative rates test fail to substantiate Vreeland et al.'s claim that strain 2-9-3 is a 250-Myr-old bacterium. The report of Vreeland et al. thus falls into a long series of suspect ancient DNA studies. Received: 12 April 2001 / Accepted: 9 June 2001     

外源H2S影响黄瓜幼苗响应高盐胁迫的蛋白质组学分析

为了阐明外源H₂S对高盐胁迫下黄瓜蛋白质表达的影响,以盐敏感型黄瓜栽培种‘春夏秋王’为材料,通过双向电泳（2 DE）技术分离叶片总蛋白质,采用基质辅助激光解析飞行时间串联质谱（MALDI TOF/TOF MS）技术对差异表达蛋白质进行质谱鉴定,并利用NCBI及SwissProt数据库检索进行差异表达蛋白质功能注释和代谢通路分析。结果表明：(1) 共检测到约2 490个蛋白质,其中蛋白质表达差异在1.5倍以上且差异显著(P<0.05)的有45个,其中有24个蛋白质表达上调,21个蛋白质表达下调。(2) 成功鉴定蛋白质26个,这些蛋白质参与了光合作用（26.92%）、蛋白质代谢（23.08%）、能量与碳水化合物代谢（11.54%）、氨基酸生物合成（11.54%）、细胞结构相关蛋白（7.69%）、抗氧化作用（3.85%）、信号转导（3.85%）及未知功能蛋白（11.54%）。(3) GO注释表明差异表达的蛋白质分子功能主要以蛋白质结合与水解酶活性为主,生物学过程涉及应激反应、有机物代谢过程、胁迫响应和细胞分化等,细胞组成集中分布在细胞部分和一些胞内细胞器。KEGG代谢通路分析表明,差异表达蛋白质主要参与了肌动蛋白细胞骨架调控、细胞凋亡、碳代谢和光和调控等代谢途径。研究表明,外源H₂S诱导了高盐胁迫下黄瓜叶片蛋白质的差异表达,为后续探索外源H₂S对黄瓜的抗盐分子机制研究提供了理论依据。     

Eco-Floristic studies of native plants of the Beer Hills along the Indus River in the districts Haripur and Abbottabad,Pakistan

The present study was conducted to elaborate vegetation composition structure to analyze role of edaphic and topographic factors on plant species distribution and community formation during 2013–14. A mixture of quadrat and transect methods were used. The size of quadrat for trees shrubs and herbs were 10 × 5, 5 × 2, 1 × 1 meter square respectively. Different phytosociological attribute were measured at each station. Primary results reported 123 plant species belong to 46 families. Asteraceae and Lamiaceae were dominant families with 8 species each. PCORD version 5 were used for Cluster and Two Way Cluster Analyses that initiated 4 plant communities within elevation range of 529–700 m from sea level. Indicator species analyses (ISA) were used to identify indicator species of each community. CANOCO Software (version 4.5) was used to measure the influence of edaphic and topographic variables on species composition, diversity and community formation. Whereas Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) was used to measure the effect of environmental variables which showed elevation and aspect were the stronger environmental variable among topographic and CaCO₃ contents, electric conductivity, soil pH were the stronger edaphic factors in determination of vegetation and communities of the Bheer Hills. Grazing pressure was one of the main anthropogenic factors in this regard.     

Front Cover: Spectrally encoded coherence tomography and reflectometry: Simultaneous en face and cross‐sectional imaging at 2 gigapixels per second (J. Biophotonics 4/2018)

SECTR is a novel multimodal imaging platform for combined volumetric optical coherence tomography (OCT) and en face spectrally encoded reflectometry (SER). The authors demonstrate three‐dimensional motion‐tracking with millisecond temporal and micron spatial resolution using complementary data from OCT and SER, and preliminary algorithms and results showing real‐time image aiming and multi‐volumetric mosaicking for reconstruction of wide‐field composites. The image shows a noninvasively imaged nine‐field mosaic of in vivo human retina and depth‐resolved visualization of tissue microstructures. Further details can be found in the article by Mohamed T. El‐Haddad, Ivan Bozic, and Yuankai K. Tao ( e201700268 )

     

Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Studies on Huwentoxin-I from the Venom of the Spider Selenocosmia huwena: 2. Three-Dimensional Structure in Solution

The three-dimensional structure in aqueous solution of native huwentoxin-I, a neurotoxin from the venom of the spider Selenocosmia huwena, has been determined from two-dimensional ¹H NMR data recorded at 500 and 600 MHz. Structural constraints consisting of interproton distances inferred from NOEs and dihedral angles from spin–spin coupling constants were used as input for distance geometry calculation with the program XPLOR 3.1. The best 10 structures have NOE violations <0.3 Å, dihedral violations <2°, and pairwise root-mean-square differences of 1.08 (±0.20) Å over backbone atoms (N, C;, C). The molecule adopts a compact structure consisting of a small triple-stranded antiparallel -sheet and five -turns. A small hydrophobic patch consisting of Phe 6, Trp 28, and Trp 31 is located on one side of the molecule. All six lysine residues are distributed on the molecular surface. The three disulfidc bridges are buried within the molecule. The structure contains an inhibitor cystine knot motif which is adopted by several other small proteins, such as -conotoxin, agatoxin IVA, and gurmarin.     

Unconditional Exact Tests for Equivalence or Noninferiority for Paired Binary Endpoints

Problems of establishing equivalence or noninferiority between two medical diagnostic procedures involve comparisons of the response rates between correlated proportions. When the sample size is small, the asymptotic tests may not be reliable. This article proposes an unconditional exact test procedure to assess equivalence or noninferiority. Two statistics, a sample-based test statistic and a restricted maximum likelihood estimation (RMLE)-based test statistic, to define the rejection region of the exact test are considered. We show the p-value of the proposed unconditional exact tests can be attained at the boundary point of the null hypothesis. Assessment of equivalence is often based on a comparison of the confidence limits with the equivalence limits. We also derive the unconditional exact confidence intervals on the difference of the two proportion means for the two test statistics. A typical data set of comparing two diagnostic procedures is analyzed using the proposed unconditional exact and asymptotic methods. The p-value from the unconditional exact tests is generally larger than the p-value from the asymptotic tests. In other words, an exact confidence interval is generally wider than the confidence interval obtained from an asymptotic test.