以茎尖组培苗检测甘蔗体内内生固氮菌的固氮活性

以巴西引进的甘蔗品种‘B1’、‘B3’、‘B5’、‘B8’以及广西地区栽培品种‘新台糖16号’和‘桂糖11号’的茎尖进行组织培养,对其继代4次的茎尖组培苗进行有氮与无氮培养比较以及于温室中无氮盆栽品种比较试验的结果表明,经茎尖培养的甘蔗品种其原有的固氮能力不丧失,4个巴西甘蔗品种的固氮能力和在无氮下的生长能力强于广西主栽品种‘新台糖16号’和‘桂糖11号’,无氮培养的巴西甘蔗品种氮含量较高,固氮活性较强,缺氮症状出现时间较迟;无氮盆栽的巴西甘蔗品种株高、分蘖、叶片的固氮活性等均优于‘新台糖16号’和‘桂糖11号’。     

菝葜属和肖菝葜属的核型变异和系统演化研究

基于体细胞染色体核型及花序特征对菝葜科Smilacaceae菝葜属Smilax和肖菝葜属Heterosmilax进行了系统演化研究,报道了国产菝葜科17个分类群的核型。根据已研究的部分形态学特征和已有的核型和分子序列资料,对它们的系统进化进行了分析。结果显示：（1）整个类群的核型变异表现在二型化、多倍化、染色体的微变异以及染色体基数递减（从16-15-13）,16为菝葜类群的基本染色体基数。（2）草本菝葜的核型对称性在东亚到北美种类中,表现出从对称到不对称的变化,而木本菝葜的各组间并未表现出这种趋势。（3）先出叶（prophy11）是宿存的芽鳞,因此在菝葜组sect．China和土茯苓组sect．Coilanthus中具花序的分枝（该分枝基部具先出叶）与圆锥菝葜组sect．Macranthae和穗菝葜组sect．Smilax中着生叶腋的花序分枝或者具关节的单伞形花序是同源的;结合ITS资料,推测花序原始类型是具伞形花序无总花梗呈穗状排列的种类。从祖先类型,花序的分化朝两个方向：一为菝葜属的菝葜组和土茯苓组以及肖菝葜属的全部种类为代表的生于叶腋的单伞形花序,另一为菝葜属的圆锥菝葜组sect．Macranthae的全部种类构成的圆锥．伞形花序。（4）肖菝葜属的核型和ITS数据都表明其为非单系类群,与草本菝葜和土茯苓组成员为姐妹群,首次发现花被2／3联合的过渡类型——筐条菝葜S.corbularia,建议将肖菝葜属降为亚属,置于菝葜属。（5）核型特点支持草本菝葜是东亚起源,扩展到北美,与土茯苓组种类有共同祖先．来自于x=16的木本菝葜,赞同恢复草本组sect．Nemexia。（6）在广布种菝葜S.china中首次发现二倍体居群,已知其存在3种倍性（2x、4x和6x）,发现不同倍性居群的分布规律,推测在第三纪至更新世中期日本、台湾岛与大陆分离之前,菝葜的叙居群已广泛分布,而目前广泛分布的缸居群是岛屿与大陆分离后形靠的。（7）我国西南是菝葜科现代分布和分化中心。     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">ATHB23</Emphasis>, an <Emphasis Type="Italic">Arabidopsis</Emphasis> class I homeodomain-leucine zipper gene,is expressed in the adaxial region of young leaves

Homeobox genes are essential regulators of plant development. ATHB23, a class I homeodomain leucine zipper gene of Arabidopsis, was found to be induced by treatment with the phytohormone gibberellin (GA). In order to clarify its role in development, we performed a histochemical analysis of transgenic plants containing a construct with a GUS::GFP reporter under the control of the 1.5 kb upstream region of ATHB23. The construct was mainly expressed in young leaves and the styles of flowers but not in mature leaves. Microscopic examination of young leaves revealed that it was expressed in the adaxial domain of leaf primordia and the rib meristem. Expression of ATHB23, like that of GA5 encoding GA 20-oxidase, was reduced in mutants related to adaxial-abaxial leaf polarity (phb-1d, se-2, and kan1 kan2). Reduced expression of the GUS::GFP reporter gene was also observed in an se-2 background. These results indicate that ATHB23 is under the control of GA and other activators such as PHB, and is involved in establishing polarity during leaf development.     

Fast numerical methods for simulating large-scale integrate-and-fire neuronal networks

We discuss numerical methods for simulating large-scale, integrate-and-fire (I&F) neuronal networks. Important elements in our numerical methods are (i) a neurophysiologically inspired integrating factor which casts the solution as a numerically tractable integral equation, and allows us to obtain stable and accurate individual neuronal trajectories (i.e., voltage and conductance time-courses) even when the I&F neuronal equations are stiff, such as in strongly fluctuating, high-conductance states; (ii) an iterated process of spike-spike corrections within groups of strongly coupled neurons to account for spike-spike interactions within a single large numerical time-step; and (iii) a clustering procedure of firing events in the network to take advantage of localized architectures, such as spatial scales of strong local interactions, which are often present in large-scale computational models—for example, those of the primary visual cortex. (We note that the spike-spike corrections in our methods are more involved than the correction of single neuron spike-time via a polynomial interpolation as in the modified Runge-Kutta methods commonly used in simulations of I&F neuronal networks.) Our methods can evolve networks with relatively strong local interactions in an asymptotically optimal way such that each neuron fires approximately once in operations, where N is the number of neurons in the system. We note that quantifications used in computational modeling are often statistical, since measurements in a real experiment to characterize physiological systems are typically statistical, such as firing rate, interspike interval distributions, and spike-triggered voltage distributions. We emphasize that it takes much less computational effort to resolve statistical properties of certain I&F neuronal networks than to fully resolve trajectories of each and every neuron within the system. For networks operating in realistic dynamical regimes, such as strongly fluctuating, high-conductance states, our methods are designed to achieve statistical accuracy when very large time-steps are used. Moreover, our methods can also achieve trajectory-wise accuracy when small time-steps are used. Action Editor: Nicolas Brunel     

Modelling and predicting the spatial distribution of tree root density in heterogeneous forest ecosystems

Background and Aims In mountain ecosystems, predicting root density in three dimensions (3-D) is highly challenging due to the spatial heterogeneity of forest communities. This study presents a simple and semi-mechanistic model, named ChaMRoots, that predicts root interception density (RID, number of roots m^–2). ChaMRoots hypothesizes that RID at a given point is affected by the presence of roots from surrounding trees forming a polygon shape.Methods The model comprises three sub-models for predicting: (1) the spatial heterogeneity – RID of the finest roots in the top soil layer as a function of tree basal area at breast height, and the distance between the tree and a given point; (2) the diameter spectrum – the distribution of RID as a function of root diameter up to 50 mm thick; and (3) the vertical profile – the distribution of RID as a function of soil depth. The RID data used for fitting in the model were measured in two uneven-aged mountain forest ecosystems in the French Alps. These sites differ in tree density and species composition.Key Results In general, the validation of each sub-model indicated that all sub-models of ChaMRoots had good fits. The model achieved a highly satisfactory compromise between the number of aerial input parameters and the fit to the observed data.Conclusions The semi-mechanistic ChaMRoots model focuses on the spatial distribution of root density at the tree cluster scale, in contrast to the majority of published root models, which function at the level of the individual. Based on easy-to-measure characteristics, simple forest inventory protocols and three sub-models, it achieves a good compromise between the complexity of the case study area and that of the global model structure. ChaMRoots can be easily coupled with spatially explicit individual-based forest dynamics models and thus provides a highly transferable approach for modelling 3-D root spatial distribution in complex forest ecosystems.     

Identification and functional characterization of the Arabidopsis Snf1‐related protein kinase SnRK2.4 phosphatidic acid‐binding domain

Phosphatidic acid (PA) is an important signalling lipid involved in various stress‐induced signalling cascades. Two SnRK2 protein kinases (SnRK2.4 and SnRK2.10), previously identified as PA‐binding proteins, are shown here to prefer binding to PA over other anionic phospholipids and to associate with cellular membranes in response to salt stress in Arabidopsis roots. A 42 amino acid sequence was identified as the primary PA‐binding domain (PABD) of SnRK2.4. Unlike the full‐length SnRK2.4, neither the PABD‐YFP fusion protein nor the SnRK2.10 re‐localized into punctate structures upon salt stress treatment, showing that additional domains of the SnRK2.4 protein are required for its re‐localization during salt stress. Within the PABD, five basic amino acids, conserved in class 1 SnRK2s, were found to be necessary for PA binding. Remarkably, plants overexpressing the PABD, but not a non‐PA‐binding mutant version, showed a severe reduction in root growth. Together, this study biochemically characterizes the PA–SnRK2.4 interaction and shows that functionality of the SnRK2.4 PABD affects root development.     

Heterogeneity of genetic architecture of body size traits in a free‐living population

Knowledge of the underlying genetic architecture of quantitative traits could aid in understanding how they evolve. In wild populations, it is still largely unknown whether complex traits are polygenic or influenced by few loci with major effect, due to often small sample sizes and low resolution of marker panels. Here, we examine the genetic architecture of five adult body size traits in a free‐living population of Soay sheep on St Kilda using 37 037 polymorphic SNPs. Two traits (jaw and weight) show classical signs of a polygenic trait: the proportion of variance explained by a chromosome was proportional to its length, multiple chromosomes and genomic regions explained significant amounts of phenotypic variance, but no SNPs were associated with trait variance when using GWAS. In comparison, genetic variance for leg length traits (foreleg, hindleg and metacarpal) was disproportionately explained by two SNPs on chromosomes 16 (s23172.1) and 19 (s74894.1), which each explained >10% of the additive genetic variance. After controlling for environmental differences, females heterozygous for s74894.1 produced more lambs and recruits during their lifetime than females homozygous for the common allele conferring long legs. We also demonstrate that alleles conferring shorter legs have likely entered the population through a historic admixture event with the Dunface sheep. In summary, we show that different proxies for body size can have very different genetic architecture and that dense SNP helps in understanding both the mode of selection and the evolutionary history at loci underlying quantitative traits in natural populations.     

Cox17 Protein Is an Auxiliary Factor Involved in the Control of the Mitochondrial Contact Site and Cristae Organizing System

The mitochondrial contact site and cristae organizing system (MICOS) is a recently discovered protein complex that is crucial for establishing and maintaining the proper inner membrane architecture and contacts with the outer membrane of mitochondria. The ways in which the MICOS complex is assembled and its integrity is regulated remain elusive. Here, we report a direct link between Cox17, a protein involved in the assembly of cytochrome c oxidase, and the MICOS complex. Cox17 interacts with Mic60, thereby modulating MICOS complex integrity. This interaction does not involve Sco1, a partner of Cox17 in transferring copper ions to cytochrome c oxidase. However, the Cox17-MICOS interaction is regulated by copper ions. We propose that Cox17 is a newly identified factor involved in maintaining the architecture of the MICOS complex.     

Litter‐trapping plants: filter‐feeders of the plant kingdom

Litter‐trapping plants have specialized growth habits and morphologies that enable them to capture falling leaf litter and other debris, which the plants use for nutrition after the litter has decayed. Litter is trapped via rosettes of leaves, specially modified leaves and/or upward‐growing roots (so‐called ‘root baskets’). Litter‐trappers, both epiphytic and terrestrial, are found throughout the tropics, with only a few extra‐tropical species, and they have evolved in many plant families. The trapped litter mass is a source of nutrients for litter‐trapping plants, as well as food and housing for commensal organisms. Despite their unique mode of life, litter‐trapping plants are not well documented, and many questions remain about their distribution, physiology and evolution.–© 2015 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, 179 , 554–586.