云南水稻地方品种月亮谷的群体多样性分析

月亮谷是云南元阳梯田种植历史悠久、种植面积最大的优良水稻地方品种之一,当地少数民族具有引种或换种的稻作习惯。为揭示这种稻作习惯对月亮谷群体遗传多样性的影响,本研究对该品种群体内和群体间进行了遗传多样性的比较和分析,目的是为更好地了解月亮谷的群体遗传结构,为持久利用地方品种提供理论依据。首先采用分层随机取样的策略从元阳梯田不同海拔获得24个原位栽培群体,采用形态指数分类法和抗病性测定对24个群体共720个单株样品的月亮谷进行形态学分类和稻瘟病抗性鉴定,并分析了这些单株材料在48个SSR位点的遗传多样性。研究结果表明,形态上月亮谷属于栽培稻的籼稻类型,其群体对稻瘟病具中抗水平,但无论是在群体内还是群体间,均普遍表现出明显差异,说明不同来源的月亮谷存在抗病功能表型上的变异;遗传多样性分析显示,48对SSR引物共检测出91个多态位点,多态性位点百分率为77.08%,Nei多样性指数平均值为0.064,变幅为0~0.4302。24个群体之间的遗传相似系数在0.9753~0.9866之间,群体内个体之间的遗传相似系数在0.86~1.00之间;AMOVA分析显示,以地理村寨作为自然居群单位,居群间的变异为3.36%,居群内群体间的变异为33.15%,居群内的变异为63.49%;聚类分析显示,村寨群体间的遗传多样性与村寨间的地理空间距离有一定相关性。     

Ecological validity of social interaction tests in rats and mice

Different rat and mouse models are used in studies of social interactions. Simple behavioral measures, which are commonly used in the laboratory, allow to perform relatively short experiments and to use multiple brain manipulation techniques. However, too much focus on the simplest behavioral models generates a serious risk of reducing ecological validity or even studying phenomena which would never happen outside of the laboratory. In this review, we discuss the suitability of mice and rats as model organisms for studying social behaviors, with focus on social transmission of fear paradigms. First, we briefly introduce the concept of domestication and what impact it had on laboratory rodents. Then, we present two aspects of social behaviors, sociability and dominance, which are crucial for social organization in these species. Finally, we present experimental models used for studying how animals transmit information about danger between each other, and how these models may reflect what happens in the natural environment. We discuss the difficulties that arise from our limited knowledge of rat and mouse ecology, especially their social life. We also explore the subject of balancing ecological validity and controllability in rodent models of social behaviors, the latter being particularly important for studying brain activity. Although it is very challenging, an efficient program for social neuroscience research should, in our opinion, aim at bridging the gap between laboratory and field studies.     

Stochastic exits from dormancy give rise to heavy‐tailed distributions of descendants in bacterial populations

Variance in reproductive success is a major determinant of the degree of genetic drift in a population. While many plants and animals exhibit high variance in their number of progeny, far less is known about these distributions for microorganisms. Here, we used a strain barcoding approach to quantify variability in offspring number among replicate bacterial populations and developed a Bayesian method to infer the distribution of descendants from this variability. We applied our approach to measure the offspring distributions for five strains of bacteria from the genus Streptomyces after germination and growth in a homogenous laboratory environment. The distributions of descendants were heavy‐tailed, with a few cells effectively ‘winning the jackpot’ to become a disproportionately large fraction of the population. This extreme variability in reproductive success largely traced back to initial populations of spores stochastically exiting dormancy, which provided early‐germinating spores with an exponential advantage. In simulations with multiple dormancy cycles, heavy‐tailed distributions of descendants decreased the effective population size by many orders of magnitude and led to allele dynamics differing substantially from classical population genetics models with matching effective population size. Collectively, these results demonstrate that extreme variability in reproductive success can occur even in growth conditions that are far more homogeneous than the natural environment. Thus, extreme variability in reproductive success might be an important factor shaping microbial population dynamics with implications for predicting the fate of beneficial mutations, interpreting sequence variability within populations and explaining variability in infection outcomes across patients.     

The adaptive potential of plant populations in response to extreme climate events

The frequency and magnitude of extreme climate events are increasing with global change, yet we lack predictions and empirical evidence for the ability of wild populations to persist and adapt in response to these events. Here, we used Fisher's Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection to evaluate the adaptive potential of Lasthenia fremontii, a herbaceous winter annual that is endemic to seasonally flooded wetlands in California, to alternative flooding regimes that occur during El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. The results indicate that populations may exhibit greater adaptive potential in response to dry years than wet years, and that the relative performance of populations will change across climate scenarios. More generally, our findings show that extreme climate events can substantially change the potential for populations to adapt to climate change by modulating the expression of standing genetic variation and mean fitness.     

Causes and effects of haploinsufficiency

Haploinsufficiency is a form of genetic dominance and is the underlying mechanism of numerous human inherited conditions in which the causal genes are sensitive to altered dosage. This review examines the poorly understood relationships between haploinsufficiency, dosage sensitivity and genetic dominance, whose common theme is the existence of nonlinear relationships between genotype and phenotype. We present an up‐to‐date account of the bases of haploinsufficiency from the perspective of theoretical and experimental models. We also discuss human conditions caused by haploinsufficiency, including developmental syndromes and cancer. Connections between the understanding of these conditions' genetic mechanisms and advances in treatments are also described.     

中国木雅人、尔苏人、八甲人与空格人6项不对称行为的特征

对四川、云南尔苏人、木雅人、空格人、八甲人4个族群进行了6项不对称行为特征(扣手、利手、叠臂、利足、叠腿、起步)的调查,结果显示:1)4个族群中,仅尔苏人、木雅人、八甲人叠臂以L型出现率偏高以外,其余不对称行为特征均为R型出现率较高;2)4个族群6项不对称行为特征均不存在性别间差异,但木雅人、尔苏人与八甲人在扣手这一不对称行为特征上存在族群间差异,木雅人与空格人在叠臂这一不对称行为特征上存在族群间差异;3)统计分析了6项不对称行为特征之间的相关性,仅八甲人多数不对称行为特征之间存在相关性。     

Dynamic imaging and quantification of subcellular motion with eigen‐decomposition optical coherence tomography‐based variance analysis

The dynamic properties of subcellular organism are important biomarkers of the health. Imaging subcellular level dynamics provides effective solutions for evaluating cell metabolism and testing the responses of cells to pathogens and drugs in pharmaceutical engineering. In this paper, we demonstrate an innovative approach to contrast the subcellular motion by using eigen decomposition (ED)‐based variance analysis of time‐dependent complex optical coherence tomography signals. This method reveals a superior advantage of contrast to noise ratio when compared with the approach that employs intensity decorrelation. Furthermore, the eigen values derived from ED processing are calculated and applied to assess the power ratios of complex signal invariance that decreases exponentially along time dimension. The validation experiments are performed on the patterned samples of yeast powder mixed with gelatin/TiO2 water solution. Additionally, the proposed method is used to image mouse cerebral cortex in normal and pathological conditions, suggesting the practicality of variance power mapping in analyzing cortical neural activities. The technique promises efficient measurement of subcellular motions with high sensitivity and high throughput for in vivo and in situ applications.