Specific protection from phenocopy induction by heat shock

Mild heat treatments applied to whole animals or cell cultures of Drosophila prior to lethal heat shocks result in increased survival and protection against phenocopy induction. The optimal condition for the preliminary mild heat treatment is that which induces the synthesis of heat-shock proteins but does not turn off the protein synthesis that is in progress. Recovery of protein synthesis but not RNA synthesis following a drastic heat shock is much enhanced by the pretreatments. The results suggest that the protection for survival and against phenocopy induction is due to storage of messenger RNA.     

The effect of partial and total drought on the macroinvertebrate communities of three small Danish streams

Three cases of partial or total drought were studied. A two weeks' stop of water flow with reduced water level and stagnant water was survived by most stream species. Only the population of Baetis rhodani Pict. was almost eliminated. An unprecedented drought of 2-3 months reduced numbers of stream species. The differential effects are discussed in relationship to the behaviour, life cycle and physiology of the individual species. After the drought many invaders were found, but most disappeared rapidly. Only Asellus aquaticus L. maintained a population in the stream. In an intermittent stream with 3–4 months' drought no changes were observed, and many species were the same as those which survived in the second stream. It is concluded that the consequences of an increasing frequency of drought, for example due to increasing ground water use, will depend on the species normally present and on the season and duration of the drought.     

Babesia rodhaini: A study of the effects of immune serum

The effect of passively administered immune serum against B. rodhaini has been studied quantitatively. The curve relating the proportion of parasites surviving, to the dose of serum, is sigmoid with a steep middle region. Parasites are killed at a rate proportional to the dose of serum in the early stages of infection, but after about 24 h a residual population of parasites multiplies at a rate only slightly less than that of normal parasites in normal hosts. The slight reduction is attributed to a residual effect of immune serum, and to the induction of an active immune response inadequate to prevent continuing multiplication of parasites.

The relationship between log₁₀ (parasite dose) and ST₅₀ for groups of mice is used to measure the dose of infective parasites.     

Freezing and Storing Ditylenchus dipsaci in Liquid Nitrogen

After 18 months of storage at -150 C, some larvae of Ditylenchus dipsaci, which had been treated in a 7.5% solution of dimethyl sulphoxide and cooled to -25 C before storage, were still viable on thawing. Some survivors penetrated and developed normally in stems of alfalfa seedlings. Tests showed that active larvae could be frozen directly, thus eliminating the need to use the quiescent stage of this nematode previously thought necessary for successful storage at cryogenic temperatures. The method described is suitable for long-term storage of D. dipsaci and may, with slight modifications, be used to preserve other plant-parasitic nematodes.     

Demography of an alpine population of Savannah Sparrows

ABSTRACT.   Although Savannah Sparrows ( Passerculus sandwichensis ) have been well studied across their North American range, few data are available for populations that breed in high-elevation habitats. We collected data over six years on the demography of a population of Savannah Sparrows ( P. s. anthinus ) breeding in alpine tundra and sub-alpine meadows in northern British Columbia, Canada. The mean duration of the breeding season at our site was 45.5 d, and pairs produced a maximum of one brood per season. Clutch sizes varied annually (mean = 4.37, range = 3.90 – 4.71 eggs). Nest fate also varied among years (range = 33 – 92%) due to variation in abiotic (weather) and biotic (predators) conditions. Uncorrected return rates of banded birds were 68% for adults and 17% for juveniles ( N = 22 and 102, respectively). However, when resighting probability was taken into account, apparent annual survival was 75% for adults and 34% for juveniles. Compared to populations at lower elevations, Savannah Sparrows in our study had shorter breeding seasons, fewer broods per season, larger clutches, and higher adult and juvenile return rates. Our results suggest that Savannah Sparrows that breed in high-elevation habitats have adopted a low fecundity, high survival life history strategy that enables their persistence in these challenging environments.     

Fitness consequences of egg-size variation in the lesser snow goose

We investigated the relationship between eggsize variation and (a) egg hatching success, (b) chick survival to fledging and recruitment, and (c) adult female survival, over 12 years in the lesser snow goose (Anser caerulescens caerulescens). By comparing the means and variances of egg size for successful and unsuccessful eggs, our aim was to assess the relative fitness of eggs of different sizes and to determine the type of selection operating on egg size in this species. As both egg size and reproductive success vary with age in the lesser snow goose we controlled for the effects of female age. Egg-size variation is very marked in this population, varying by up to 52% for eggs hatching successfully. However, there was no relationship between egg size and post-hatching survival of goslings to fledging or recruitment, either within or between broods, pooling across years. Egg size varied significantly between successful and unsuccessful clutches in only 2 of 33 individual year comparisons. First-laid eggs surviving to onset of incubation, and eggs hatching successfully, were on average larger than unsuccessful eggs, but this was probably due to the confounding effects of female age-specific and sequence-specific egg survival. Variance of egg size differed significantly between successful and unsuccessful eggs in only 3 of 24, and 0 of 21, individual year comparisons for pre- and post-hatching survival respectively. We therefore found little evidence for a relationship between egg-size variation and offspring fitness, or for strong directional, normalising or diversifying selection operating on egg size, in the lesser snow goose. In addition, there was only weak support for the hypothesis that egg-size variation is maintained by temporal variation in selection pressure (sensu Ankney and Bisset 1973). It is likely that egg-size variation represents the pleiotropic expression of alleles affecting more general physiological or metabolic processes. While this does not rule out the existence of alleles with more direct effects on egg size we suggest that their contribution to heritable egg size is small.     

PTPN21 exerts pro-neuronal survival and neuritic elongation via ErbB4/NRG3 signaling

Although expression quantitative trait locus, eQTL, serves as an explicit indicator of gene–gene associations, challenges remain to disentangle the mechanisms by which genetic variations alter gene expression. Here we combined eQTL and molecular analyses to identify an association between two seemingly non-associated genes in brain expression data from BXD inbred mice, namely Ptpn21 and Nrg3. Using biotinylated receptor tracking and immunoprecipitation analyses, we determined that PTPN21 de-phosphorylates the upstream receptor tyrosine kinase ErbB4 leading to the up-regulation of its downstream signaling. Conversely, kinase-dead ErbB4 (K751R) or phosphatase-dead PTPN21 (C1108S) mutants impede PTPN21-dependent signaling. Furthermore, PTPN21 also induced Elk-1 activation in embryonic cortical neurons and a novel Elk-1 binding motif was identified in a region located 1919 bp upstream of the NRG3 initiation codon. This enables PTPN21 to promote NRG3 expression through Elk-1, which provides a biochemical mechanism for the PTPN21–NRG3 association identified by eQTL. Biologically, PTPN21 positively influences cortical neuronal survival and, similar to Elk-1, it also enhances neuritic length. Our combined approaches show for the first time, a link between NRG3 and PTPN21 within a signaling cascade. This may explain why these two seemingly unrelated genes have previously been identified as risk genes for schizophrenia.     

Autophagy as the cell survival in response to a microsporidian infection of the midgut epithelium of Isohypsibius granulifer granulifer (Eutardigrada: Hypsibiidae)

The midgut epithelial cells of many invertebrates may possess microorganisms which act as symbionts or pathogens (bacteria, microsporidia, viruses). During our previous studies on Isohypsibius granulifer granulifer Thulin, 1928 (Tardigrada, Eutardigrada), which examined alterations of the midgut epithelium during oogenesis, we found that some of the specimens were infected with microsporidia. All stages of pathogens occurred in the cytoplasm of the digestive cells in the midgut epithelium of I. g. granulifer that were infected with microsporidia: meronts, sporonts, sporoblasts, and spores. The cytoplasm of the digestive cells was rich in mitochondria, cisterns of rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER), and Golgi complexes. Autophagy in the digestive cells of the dorsal midgut was much more intensive in comparison with noninfected specimens. Membranes of phagophores surrounded the pathogens forming autophagosomes. These latter structures fused with lysosomes forming autolysosomes and residual bodies appeared. Neither glycogen granules nor droplets of varying electron density, which accumulated in digestive cells during vitellogenesis and choriogenesis, appeared in individuals with microsporidia. While the midgut epithelium in noninfected specimens takes part in vitellogenesis and choriogenesis, in infected specimens, midgut cells are involved in the process of autophagy as a survival strategy.