Contribution to the genome size knowledge of New World species from the Heliantheae alliance (Asteraceae)

This article contributes first genome size assessments by flow cytometry for 16 species, 12 genera, and 3 tribes from family Asteraceae, mostly belonging to the Heliantheae alliance, an assembly of 13 tribes from subfamily Asteroideae with a large majority of its species in the New World. Most genome sizes are accompanied by their own chromosome counts, confirming in most cases, although not all, previous counts for the species, and revealing possible cases of unknown dysploidy or polyploidy for certain taxa. The data contribute to the pool of knowledge on genome size and chromosome numbers in the family Asteraceae and will further allow deeper studies and a better understanding on the role of dysploidy in the evolution of the Heliantheae alliance. However, we still lack data for tribes Chaenactideae, Neurolaeneae, Polymnieae, and Feddeeae (the latter, monospecific) to complete the alliance representation.     

Coupled Active Systems Encode an Emergent Hunting Behavior in the Unicellular Predator Lacrymaria olor

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Leaf litter stoichiometry affects decomposition rates and nutrient dynamics in tropical forests under restoration in Costa Rica

Active restoration strategies increase the production of leaf litter in tropical forests, but little is known about their effect on litter decomposition and subsequent nutrient release. We quantified changes in leaf litter stoichiometry during decomposition in former pasture sites under contrasting restoration strategies (natural regeneration, applied nucleation/islands tree planting and plantation), as well as in nearby primary forest. Litterbags were employed to evaluate decomposition. We used a leaf mixture of either the four planted tree species in the plantation and island treatments or the nearby primary forest and compared them under a factorial design. Decomposition rates were similar between restoration treatments (p > 0.5), but leaves decomposed faster in the forest mixture than in the plantation mixture (p < 0.01). The content of Ca, Mg, K, P, and the C:N ratio were higher in the forest mixture at the beginning and during decomposition (p < 0.05); the N content in the plantation mixture was higher at the beginning but lower during decomposition (p < 0.05), which meant greater mobilization of nitrogen per unit of carbon lost. K and P had a strong initial release, while Mg was released more gradually. N and Ca had an irregular pattern of initial fast release, immobilization, and re‐release in the later stages. We conclude that the differences in rates of decomposition and nutrient release in these systems under restoration were at least partly determined by the floristic heterogeneity and chemical quality of the leaf litter that reaches the soil.     

Light waveguiding in bioinspired peptide nanostructures

Basic optical properties of bioinspired peptide nanostructures are deeply modified by thermally mediated refolding of peptide secondary structure from α‐helical to β‐sheet. This conformational transition is followed by the appearance in the β‐sheet structures of a wideband optical absorption and fluorescence in the visible region. We demonstrate that a new biophotonic effect of optical waveguiding recently observed in peptide/protein nanoensembles is a structure‐sensitive bimodal phenomenon. In the primary α‐helical structure input, light propagates via optical transmission window demonstrating conventional passive waveguiding, based on classical optics. In the β‐sheet structure, fluorescent (active) light waveguiding is revealed. The latter can be attributed to completely different physical mechanism of exciton‐polariton propagation, characterized by high effective refractive index, and can be observed in nanoscale fibers below diffraction limit. It has been shown that peptide material requirements for passive and active waveguiding are dissimilar. Original biocompatibility and biodegradability indicate high potential future applications of these bioinspired waveguiding materials in precise photobiomedicine towards advanced highly selective bioimaging, photon diagnostics, and optogenetics.     

曲霉属真菌活性代谢产物及在农业生产中的应用研究进展

曲霉属(Aspergillus)真菌是一类分布广泛的丝状真菌,种类繁多,代谢产物丰富,应用广泛,在农业、医药、生物能源、化妆品、食品发酵等行业均有应用。对近年来曲霉属真菌活性代谢产物在抗菌、抗氧化、抗病毒方面的研究进展进行了综述。结合实验室研究成果,对近年来曲霉属真菌代谢产物在秸秆腐熟菌剂、溶磷生物菌剂、拮抗植物寄生线虫等农业生产领域中的应用进行综述,以期为开发应用曲霉属真菌活性代谢产物的研究提供参考。     

长沙市不同污染程度区域桂花和香樟叶表面PM2.5吸附量及其影响因素

为阐释不同污染程度下城市绿化植物吸滞PM_2.5机理、解析污染物来源,应用气溶胶再发生器定量测定长沙市常见的2种园林绿化树种(桂花和香樟)植物叶片PM_2.5吸附量,同时应用原子力显微镜(AFM)观察了不同污染区(交通区、文教区、清洁区)植被的叶表面微形态特征,使用离子色谱仪测定样品中水溶性离子含量.结果表明: 污染程度与植物叶表面PM_2.5吸附量呈正相关,不同植物单位叶面积PM_2.5吸附量全年均值表现为交通区(0.56±0.04 μg·cm^-2)＞文教区(0.48±0.06 μg·cm^-2)＞清洁区(0.33±0.02 μg·cm^-2),植物单位叶面积PM_2.5吸附量季节变化为冬季(0.70±0.10 μg·cm^-2)＞春季(0.43±0.14 μg·cm^-2)＞秋季(0.39±0.12 μg·cm^-2)＞夏季(0.31±0.09 μg·cm^-2),桂花的单位叶面积PM_2.5吸附量大于香樟;污染程度轻的区域的植物叶片比较光滑,污染程度重的区域的叶片较粗糙,植物粗糙度排序为交通区(195.45±16.09 nm)＞文教区(176.99±8.45 nm)＞清洁区(131.88±12.98 nm);不同污染程度地区PM_2.5离子含量均表现为冬季最大,其次是春季和秋季,夏季最低;3个污染区PM_2.5离子成分均以Na⁺、NH₄⁺、Cl^-和Br^-这4种离子为主,不同程度污染区PM_2.5污染均以移动源污染为主.     

Soil microbes alter plant fitness under competition and drought

Plants exist across varying biotic and abiotic environments, including variation in the composition of soil microbial communities. The ecological effects of soil microbes on plant communities are well known, whereas less is known about their importance for plant evolutionary processes. In particular, the net effects of soil microbes on plant fitness may vary across environmental contexts and among plant genotypes, setting the stage for microbially mediated plant evolution. Here, we assess the effects of soil microbes on plant fitness and natural selection on flowering time in different environments. We performed two experiments in which we grew Arabidopsis thaliana genotypes replicated in either live or sterilized soil microbial treatments, and across varying levels of either competition (isolation, intraspecific competition or interspecific competition) or watering (well‐watered or drought). We found large effects of competition and watering on plant fitness as well as the expression and natural selection of flowering time. Soil microbes increased average plant fitness under interspecific competition and drought and shaped the response of individual plant genotypes to drought. Finally, plant tolerance to either competition or drought was uncorrelated between soil microbial treatments suggesting that the plant traits favoured under environmental stress may depend on the presence of soil microbes. In summary, our experiments demonstrate that soil microbes can have large effects on plant fitness, which depend on both the environment and individual plant genotype. Future work in natural systems is needed for a complete understanding of the evolutionary importance of interactions between plants and soil microorganisms.     

Characteristics of the microbial community in rhizosphere of Camptotheca acuminata cultured with exotic invasive plant Eupatorium adenophorum

The traditional culture-dependent plate counting and culture-independent small-subunit-ribosomal RNA gene-targeted molecular techniques, Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism (SSCP) and ter-minal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (tRFLP) combined with 16S rDNA clone library were adopted to investigate the impacts of secretion from Camptotheca acuminata (abbreviated to Ca) roots on the quantities and structure of eukaryotic microbes and bacteria in the rhizosphere, and the possi-bility that Ca controls exotic invasive plant Eupatorium adenophorum (Ea). The counting results indi-cated that the number of bacteria increased in turn in rhizospheres of Ea, Ca-Ea mixed culture and Ca, while that of eukaryotic microbes decreased. PCR-SSCP profiles showed eukaryotic microbial bands (corresponding to biodiversity) in rhizosphere of Ea were more complex than those of Ca and CE. Meristolohmannia sp., Termitomyces sp. and Rhodophyllus sp. were the dominant populations in the rhizosphere of Ca. Bacterial terminal restriction fragments (TRFs) profiles showed no difference among three kinds of rhizospheres, and the sequences of the 16S rDNA clone library from Ca rhizospheres were distributed in 10 known phyla, in which phylum Proteobacteria were the absolute dominant group and accounted for 24.71% of the cloned sequences (δ-Proteobacteria accounted for up to 17.65%), and phyla Acidobacteria and Bacteroidetes accounted for 16.47% and 10.59% of the cloned sequences, respectively. In addition, high performance liquid chromatography detected a trace amount of camp-tothecin and hydroxycamptothecin in the rhizospheric soil of Ca and CE, but examined neither camp-tothecin nor hydroxycamptothecin in rhizospheric soil of Ea. Therefore, invasion and diffusion of Ea evidently depended on distinguishing the eukaryotic community structure, but not on that of the bac-terial pattern. Ca was able to alter the eukaryotic community structure of invasive Ea by secreting camptothecin and hydroxycamptothecin into rhizospheres, and may benefit the control of overspread of Ea. This study provided theoretical evidence for rhizospheric microbial aspects on substituting Ca for Ea.     

Characterization of Changes and Driver Microbes in Gut Microbiota During Healthy Aging Using A Captive Monkey Model

Recent population studies have significantly advanced our understanding of how age shapes the gut microbiota. However, the actual role of age could be inevitably confounded due to the complex and variable environmental factors in human populations. A well-controlled environment is thus necessary to reduce undesirable confounding effects, and recapitulate age-dependent changes in the gut microbiota of healthy primates. Herein we performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing, characterized the age-associated gut microbial profiles from infant to elderly crab-eating macaques reared in captivity, and systemically revealed the lifelong dynamic changes of the primate gut microbiota. While the most significant age-associated taxa were mainly found as commensals such as Faecalibacterium, the abundance of a group of suspicious pathogens such as Helicobacter was exclusively increased in infants, underlining their potential role in host development. Importantly, topology analysis indicated that the network connectivity of gut microbiota was even more age-dependent than taxonomic diversity, and its tremendous decline with age could probably be linked to healthy aging. Moreover, we identified key driver microbes responsible for such age-dependent network changes, which were further linked to altered metabolic functions of lipids, carbohydrates, and amino acids, as well as phenotypes in the microbial community. The current study thus demonstrates the lifelong age-dependent changes and their driver microbes in the primate gut microbiota, and provides new insights into their roles in the development and healthy aging of their hosts.     

抗逆转录病毒药对孕育期雌鼠心血管影响*

目的: 评价抗逆转录病毒药对孕育期雌性大鼠心血管功能及某些生化指标的影响。方法: SD大鼠9周龄雌鼠19只、10周龄雄鼠6只,9只/10只雌鼠与3只雄鼠合1笼,共2笼,分为正常对照组(CON)、高效抗逆转录病毒治疗组(HARRT)。其中CON组雌性大鼠每天早、晚生理盐水 (10 ml/kg)灌胃,HARRT组雌性大鼠灌等容积抗逆转录病毒药(AZT 31.25 mg/kg +3TC 15.63 mg/kg +LPV/r (41.67/10.42) mg/kg),连续3个月。记录雌性大鼠体重、存活情况;检测超声心动图,多导生理记录仪检测动脉血压、心脏血流动力学参数;相应试剂盒检测血糖、血脂四项、心肌酶及肝酶;Masson染色及透射电镜分别观察心肌胶原纤维和心肌细胞超微结构。结果: CON组雌性大鼠均存活(9/9),HARRT组雌性大鼠存活6只(6/10);与CON组比较,HAART组雌性大鼠体重减少(P＜ 0.01);LVDd、IVST、LVPWT、LAD增加(P＜0.05);动脉舒张压增加(P＜0.05)、LVP +dP/dt_max减少(P＜0.01);TG减少、Glu增加(P＜0.05)、CK减少(P＜0.01)、GOT减少(P＜0.05);心肌组织胶原纤维增多,心肌细胞超微结构异常。结论: 抗逆转录病毒药可导致孕育期雌性大鼠心血管病变。