秸秆降解菌剂对秸秆还田土壤中细菌种群数量的影响

要研究秸秆降解菌剂施用后1个生长季秸秆中细菌的数量和纤维素酶活力,了解其动态变化,为进一步研究分析土壤中微生物结构变化规律提供可靠的理论依据.利用分子生物学方法,对秸秆降解菌剂施用后不同生长阶段耕层中细菌基因组DNA纯化后PCR扩增其16S rDNA V3可变区,对扩增产物进行DGGE电泳,并对结果进行分析.初步分析表明,菌落数量呈现前期上升、中期最高、后期逐渐降低的趋势.     

黄河裸裂尻鱼肥胖基因克隆及其对青藏高原季节性冷环境的适应性表达

目的克隆黄河裸裂尻鱼肥胖基因(obese gene,ob),分析编码蛋白leptin的序列特征,检测ob mR-NA的组织特异性表达和不同环境温度下肝胰脏和白肌ob mRNA的相对表达水平,为探究黄河裸裂尻鱼在青藏高原季节性寒冷环境下的生态适应机制提供科学数据。方法利用RT-PCT、5’-RACE和3’-RACE法获得ob基因全长cDNA序列。通过已知cDNA序列设计半定量RT-PCR和real-time PCR引物,进行表达研究。结果黄河裸裂尻鱼ob基因序列全长为1 337 bp,其中开放阅读框(ORF)长513 bp,编码170个氨基酸。黄河裸裂尻鱼ob mRNA在心脏、肾脏、脂肪、肠、精巢、肝胰脏、鳃、脑和肌肉9个被检组织中均有表达,其中在心脏中表达最强,肌肉组织中表达最弱。栖息水域环境温度下降,将显著抑制黄河裸裂尻鱼肝胰脏和白肌ob mRNA的表达。结论黄河裸裂尻鱼ob基因特殊的组织表达特征可能与其特定组织的能量代谢及其特殊的生物学功能有关。Leptin在黄河裸裂尻鱼能量代谢调节和季节性环境适应方面发挥着重要作用。     

Architectural design influences the diversity and structure of the built environment microbiome

Buildings are complex ecosystems that house trillions of microorganisms interacting with each other, with humans and with their environment. Understanding the ecological and evolutionary processes that determine the diversity and composition of the built environment microbiome—the community of microorganisms that live indoors—is important for understanding the relationship between building design, biodiversity and human health. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene to quantify relationships between building attributes and airborne bacterial communities at a health-care facility. We quantified airborne bacterial community structure and environmental conditions in patient rooms exposed to mechanical or window ventilation and in outdoor air. The phylogenetic diversity of airborne bacterial communities was lower indoors than outdoors, and mechanically ventilated rooms contained less diverse microbial communities than did window-ventilated rooms. Bacterial communities in indoor environments contained many taxa that are absent or rare outdoors, including taxa closely related to potential human pathogens. Building attributes, specifically the source of ventilation air, airflow rates, relative humidity and temperature, were correlated with the diversity and composition of indoor bacterial communities. The relative abundance of bacteria closely related to human pathogens was higher indoors than outdoors, and higher in rooms with lower airflow rates and lower relative humidity. The observed relationship between building design and airborne bacterial diversity suggests that we can manage indoor environments, altering through building design and operation the community of microbial species that potentially colonize the human microbiome during our time indoors.     

Effects of ambient colour on colour preference and growth of juvenile rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum)

Colour preference of individual juvenile rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss was tested at 1 and 12° C, and also at 12° C after a 42 day growth experiment under white, blue, green, yellow or red ambient colour. All experiments were carried out under controlled laboratory conditions and the preference was assessed by the location of the fish in a preference tank with four chambers. Rainbow trout showed a preference for blue and green at 1° C and for green at 12° C. After the growth experiment the fish reared in blue tanks preferred blue and green but green was the most preferred colour for the fish reared in green, yellow and red tanks. Yellow and especially red chambers were avoided, irrespective of the ambient colour during the growth trial. The final mass of fish reared in the red aquaria was significantly smaller than that of the fish in green tanks. In addition, when the data of the preference tests were correlated with the data of the growth experiment using mean values of the four tested colours, a very good linear relationship was observed between the preference ( i.e. visit frequency in coloured compartments) and growth rate as well as food intake. When considering the results both from the preference and growth trials it is suggested that green is the best environmental colour for rearing juvenile rainbow trout while rearing in a red environment cannot be recommended.     

Effects of the rearing environment on average behaviour and behavioural variation in steelhead

In the context of conservation hatcheries that seek to bolster wild populations by releasing captively-reared fishes into the wild, steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss were used to test the hypothesis that naturalistic rearing environments promote adaptive behaviour that might otherwise not develop in typical hatchery environments. When comparisons were made among fish reared in barren, structured or structurally variable environments ( i.e. the location of the structure was repositioned every 2–3 days), structure in the rearing environment increased future exploratory behaviour, but only if the structure was stable. Under conditions of high perceived predation risk, the fish no longer exhibited increased exploratory behaviour, suggesting that it is expressed in an adaptive, context-dependant manner. Another concern with hatcheries is that relaxed selection over multiple generations in captivity can increase maladaptive behavioural variation. Compared to rearing in hatchery-typical barren environments, rearing in structured-stable environments decreased behavioural variation. This effect, which occurred during development and did not involve selection, demonstrates a different mechanism for change in behavioural variation in captivity. These experiments show that effects of structure and structural stability occur at the level of both average behaviour and behavioural variation, and suggest that these effects should be considered when fishes are reared in hatcheries for later release into the wild.     

On the causes of density banding in skeletons of corals of the genus Montastraea

To obtain a reliable climate reconstruction from coral skeletons it is first necessary to understand the way these grow and incorporate information. Thickness of skeletal elements (exothecal and endothecal dissepiments, costae, septa, and theca-wall) as well as the spacing between exothecal and endothecal dissepiments of the four extant Atlantic species of Montastraea (M. annularis, M. faveolata, M. franksi and M. cavernosa) were measured through high and low density bands. Our results show that growth periodicity, controlled by the effect of temperature, is expressed in changes in thickness of costae and exothecal dissepiments in the four studied Montastraea species, with no changes in endothecal elements and theca-wall thickness which, in turn, has implications for research on inclusive records using these species. Spacing between both exothecal and endothecal dissepiments resulted without changes along the high and low density bands, and we found evidence that there is a rhythmical formation of these structures linked somehow to lunar cycles.     

A general role for surface membrane proteins in attachment to chitin particles and copepods of environmental and clinical vibrios

AIMS: To investigate the role of surface membrane proteins (MP) to promote attachment to chitin particles and copepods of different environmental and clinical vibrios. METHOD AND RESULTS: The role of surface MP to promote attachment to chitin particles and the copepod Tigriopus fulvus was investigated in several environmental and clinical Vibrio strains by inhibition test methods. Attachment to both substrates was significantly inhibited by homologous MP treatment in all strains and percentages of inhibition were comparable with the ones observed with N-acetyl glucosamine (GlcNAc). Sarkosyl-insoluble MP extracted from tested strains were added to chitin particles either in the presence or in the absence of GlcNAc and the fraction bound to chitin in both conditions was visualized by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Chitin-binding proteins (CBP) defined as Sarkosyl-insoluble MP that bound chitin in the absence of GlcNAc but did not in the presence of the sugar were isolated in all strains. CONCLUSION: CBP are common in both environmental and clinical Vibrio strains and they have an important general role in mediating cell interactions with chitin-containing surfaces. SIGNIFICANT AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The role of CBP should be taken into account when investigating environmental persistence of aquatic vibrios.     

Effect of dengue vector control interventions on entomological parameters in developing countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The aim of this review was to compare the effects of different dengue vector control interventions (i.e. biological control, chemical control, environmental management and integrated vector management) with respect to the following entomological parameters: Breteau index (BI), container index (CI), and house index (HI). We systematically searched PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Science Direct, the Dengue Bulletin of the World Health Organization and reference lists of retrieved articles on dengue vector control interventions in developing countries. We extracted data on the effectiveness of different dengue vector control interventions (defined as the relative reduction of an entomological measure caused by the intervention compared with the control or pre-intervention phase) and calculated a measure of combined relative effectiveness, with 95% confidence intervals (95% c.i.). We identified 56 publications covering 61 dengue vector control interventions. Integrated vector management was found to be the most effective method to reduce the CI, HI and BI, resulting in random combined relative effectiveness values of 0.12 (95% c.i. 0.02-0.62), 0.17 (95% c.i. 0.02-1.28) and 0.33 (95% c.i. 0.22-0.48), respectively. Environmental management showed a relatively low effectiveness of 0.71 (95% c.i. 0.55-0.90) for the BI, 0.49 (95% c.i. 0.30-0.79) for the CI and 0.43 (95% c.i. 0.31-0.59) for the HI. Biological control (relative effectiveness for the CI: 0.18) usually targeted a small number of people (median population size: 200; range 20-2500), whereas integrated vector management focused on larger populations (median: 12 450; range: 210-9 600 000). In conclusion, dengue vector control is effective in reducing vector populations, particularly when interventions use a community-based, integrated approach, which is tailored to local eco-epidemiological and sociocultural settings and combined with educational programmes to increase knowledge and understanding of best practice. New research should assess the density-dependent effectiveness of each control measure in order to estimate whether reducing vector numbers has an impact on dengue transmission when populations are at a critical threshold.