A warrant for applied palaeozoology

It has been argued by some neozoologists (those who study living animals) that the palaeozoological record is biased and incomplete (relative to an existing biological community) and therefore should not be consulted for purposes of conservation biology. An article published in a biology journal in 2011 lists numerous reasons why natural history collections (NHCs) of skins and skulls of animals collected over the past century or two are exceptionally valuable to conservation biologists because those collections provide significant time depth to numerous variables that document global biological change. Many of those same variables can be, and have been, identified in the palaeozoological record. Those variables are of major value to conservation biology, whether their values are taken from 100‐year‐old NHCs or from palaeozoological remains. Empirical examples in which the identified variables are measured in palaeozoological contexts indicate that the palaeozoological record should indeed be consulted by conservation biologists and can no longer be considered unsatisfactory for modern resource management.     

Ray Meta: scalable de novo metagenome assembly and profiling

Voluminous parallel sequencing datasets, especially metagenomic experiments, require distributed computing for de novo assembly and taxonomic profiling. Ray Meta is a massively distributed metagenome assembler that is coupled with Ray Communities, which profiles microbiomes based on uniquely-colored k-mers. It can accurately assemble and profile a three billion read metagenomic experiment representing 1,000 bacterial genomes of uneven proportions in 15 hours with 1,024 processor cores, using only 1.5 GB per core. The software will facilitate the processing of large and complex datasets, and will help in generating biological insights for specific environments. Ray Meta is open source and available at http://denovoassembler.sf.net.     

用模块化分子元件调控和编程生物系统

合成生物学的目标包括“通过合成来理解生命”以及用现代工程学方法设计合成复杂生物系统．其工程学目标的实现依赖于可集成、可调控、可重用、功能多样的蛋白质、RNA、DNA等基本分子元件．以分子机制为基础,合理设计与实验室进化相结合,改造和创建生物分子的相互作用特异性、调控方式、定量活性等,是实现生物系统人工调控与编程的重要策略,同时为自下而上设计合成日益复杂的人工生物系统奠定基础．     

舟山渔场金塘岛海域春夏季的鱼类群落

为了揭示金塘岛附近海域渔场鱼类资源特征,利用2009年5月和9月在舟山渔场金塘岛水域获得的渔业资源调查资料,研究金塘岛水域鱼类密度的时空分布,分析种类组成、优势种、种类数和多样性等群落结构等指标的变化特征,分析这些特征所反映这一水域的渔场属性。结果表明:5月和9月鱼类重量和尾数密度分别为47.51kg.km-2、3.44×103ind.km-2和92.50kg.km-2、20.51×103ind.km-2;鱼类重量密度与尾数密度分布趋势基本一致,呈现出近舟山群岛一侧的东部水域鱼类密度高于西部水域的趋势;5月和9月龙头鱼(Harpodon nehereus)是本海域最重要的优势种,几乎为幼体组成,而凤鲚(Coilia mystus)是次要优势种。总体上,两季平均鱼类幼体比例高达86%,显示出这一水域是鱼类的产卵场和育幼场;鱼类种类数夏季高于春季;种类数与多样性的分布格局相似,也是舟山群岛一侧的东部水域鱼类密度高于西部水域。可以认为,近金塘岛一侧海域是经济幼鱼的索饵场。     

高羊茅草对盐碱地原油污染土壤微生物的影响

采用常规土壤理化分析和Biolog-Eco微孔板鉴定系统,研究了松嫩平原盐碱土地区高羊茅草的生长对原油污染土壤pH、总盐含量和微生物群落的影响.结果表明: 石油污染导致表征土壤微生物代谢活性的平均颜色变化率(AWCD)、物种多样性指数和碳源利用数增加, 微生物碳源利用模式发生改变.高羊茅草对石油污染土壤有较好的修复作用,降低了土壤pH和石油烃(TPH)含量,提高了土壤含水率.高羊茅草根际土壤的AWCD和碳源利用丰富度指数明显高于裸地土壤,为其根际微生物的生长发育提供了适宜的环境.     

刈割对克氏针茅草原群落优势与亚优势植物的影响

基于内蒙古中部克氏针茅草原长期刈割试验,分析了不同留茬高度下克氏针茅草原植物群落中5个优势及亚优势种地上生物量和群落稳定性的变化.结果表明：留茬高度在10 cm以上时对5种植物地上生物量的影响较小.留茬高度为10 cm适于冷蒿生长,而不利于克氏针茅的生长.糙隐子草在留茬高度为2 cm时表现最佳.黄囊苔草对群落的贡献在留茬高度为5 cm时最大,此时其生物量与刈割年限呈正相关.留茬高度为2和15 cm不利于星毛委陵菜生长.植株较高、竞争力强的多年生植物对干扰的耐受能力较强,刈割的留茬高度不低于10 cm时,有益于维持草原生态系统的稳定性.     

Nudel is crucial for the WAVE complex assembly in vivo by selectively promoting subcomplex stability and formation through direct interactions

The WAVE regulatory complex (WRC), consisting of WAVE, Sra, Nap, Abi, and HSPC300, activates the Arp2/3 complex to control branched actin polymerization in response to Rac activation. How the WRC is assembled in vivo is not clear. Here we show that Nudel, a protein critical for lamellipodia formation, dramatically stabilized the Sra1-Nap1-Abi1 complex against degradation in cells through a dynamic binding to Sra1, whereas its physical interaction with HSPC300 protected free HSPC300 from the proteasome-mediated degradation and stimulated the HSPC300-WAVE2 complex formation. By contrast, Nudel showed little or no interactions with the Sra1-Nap1-Abi1-WAVE2 and the Sra1-Nap1-Abi1-HSPC300 complexes as well as the mature WRC. Depletion of Nudel by RNAi led to general subunit degradation and markedly attenuated the levels of mature WRC. It also abolished the WRC-dependent actin polymerization in vitro and the Rac1-induced lamellipodial actin network formation during cell spreading. Therefore, Nudel is important for the early steps of the WRC assembly in vivo by antagonizing the instability of certain WRC subunits and subcomplexes.     

秦岭西部山地次生林和人工林大型土壤动物群落结构特征

人类对次生林生态系统的长期扰动必然会对地下生态过程产生深刻影响,而土壤动物群落结构和功能多样性对地下生态过程的演变有重要的指示意义.本文以小陇山林区恢复近30年的次生林和栽植近30年的油松、日本落叶松、欧洲云杉和粗枝云杉林为对象,通过对5种林型土壤动物群落密度调查,采用PCA排序和方差分析等方法,探讨了不同林型土壤动物群落结构特征和营养结构.结果表明:油松林和日本落叶松林土壤动物群落密度是次生林的3.0和2.1倍;油松和日本落叶松人工林土壤动物群落中消费者/分解者比值明显高于次生林,油松林和日本落叶松林消费者/分解者的比值显著高于欧洲云杉林和粗枝云杉林;不同人工林土壤动物群落结构存在明显差异,油松林和日本落叶松林土壤动物群落密度是粗枝云杉林的4.5和3.1倍,而油松林土壤动物群落类群丰富度是欧洲云杉林和粗枝云杉林的1.5倍.