NARROW HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN TWO SUBSPECIES OF BIG SAGEBRUSH (ARTEMISIA TRIDENTATA: ASTERACEAE). IV. RECIPROCAL TRANSPLANT EXPERIMENTS

Does endogenous or exogenous selection stabilize the big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) hybrid zone? After two years of study, our reciprocal transplant experiments showed significant genotype by environment interactions for a number of fitness components, including germination, growth, and reproduction. Hybrids were the most fit within the hybrid garden. In the parental gardens, the native parental taxon was more fit than either the alien parental or hybrids. These results are consistent with the bounded hybrid superiority model, which assumes exogenous selection, but are clearly at odds with the dynamic equilibrium model, which assumes endogenous selection and universal hybrid unfitness.     

生物学实验中的湿度控制：改良的装置及工作原理

相对湿度是生物学实验中一个十分重要而又较难准确控制的环境因素．本项研究设计出一种改进的简易控湿装置,可利用普通温光型培养箱同时进行不同湿度水平的生物学实验．该装置由微型气泵、３个试剂瓶串连而成的三联体和一个用有机玻璃制成的生长箱组成,经在２０℃下对饱和酒石酸钠溶液调节的湿度（理论值９２％）连续测定和校正,控湿效果良好,误差仅±１％左右．同时对不同浓度硫酸溶液控制生长箱内不同水平的湿度进行了测定和检验,亦效果良好,且对环境温度的适应性强,在５～３５℃范围内同一硫酸浓度控制相同的稳定湿度．最后,对上述装置控制湿度的稳定性及其影响因素进行了讨论     

Sampling of intracellular metabolites for stationary and non-stationary C metabolic flux analysis in Escherichia coli

The analysis of metabolic intermediates is a rich source of isotopic information for ¹³C metabolic flux analysis (¹³C-MFA) and extends the range of its applications. The sampling of labeled metabolic intermediates is particularly important to obtain reliable isotopic information. The assessment of the different sampling procedures commonly used to generate such data, therefore, is crucial. In this work, we thoroughly evaluated several sampling procedures for stationary and non-stationary ¹³C-MFA using Escherichia coli. We first analyzed the efficiency of these procedures for quenching metabolism and found that procedures based on cold or boiling solvents are reliable, in contrast to fast filtration, which is not. We also showed that separating the cells from the broth is not necessary in isotopic stationary state conditions. On the other hand, we demonstrated that the presence of metabolic intermediates outside the cells strongly affects the transient isotopic data monitored during non-stationary ¹³C-labeling experiments. Meaningful isotopic data can be obtained by recovering intracellular labeled metabolites from pellets of cells centrifuged in cold solvent. We showed that if the intracellular pools are not separated from the extracellular ones, accurate flux maps can be established provided that the contribution of exogenous compounds is taken into account in the metabolic flux model.     

Structural Characterization of Biomolecules through Atomistic Simulations Guided by DEER Measurements

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Evolutionary implications of swimming behaviour in meiobenthic copepods

Body morphology is said to be the all important factor in determining swimming prowess in copepods. Fusion and differentiation of the body (tagmosis) is coupled with advance into the pelagic realm of the Gymnoplea and is thought, by the provision of a rigid thoracic tagma, to promote swimming efficiency. Thus pelagic copepods are believed to be secondarily derived from bottom dwelling predecessors. Experimental evidence is presented to show that the majority of bottom dwelling harpacticoid families, including the most primitive and the most advanced, have representatives that undergo active sustained swimming movements. Such a widespread occurrence is indicative of a conservative evolutionary trait. This primitive behaviour is linked to precopulatory association which takes place necessarily in the water column; it is a feature retained by representatives of all copepod orders. The implication of cephalic appendage vibration (feeding currents) is the essential feature in the swimming success of the Gymnoplea; planktonic efficiency in these is suggested to have evolved coincident with, rather than because of increased tagmosis.     

Evaluation of Adult White Sturgeon Swimming Capabilities and Applications to Fishway Design

Concern over passage of sturgeon barriers, has focused attention on fishway design that accommodates its swimming performance. In order to evaluate swimming performance, regarding fish ladder type partial barriers, wild adult sturgeons, Acipenser transmontanus; 121–76m fork length, were captured in the San Francisco Bay Estuary and Yolo Bypass toe drain. Hydrodynamic forces and kinematic parameters for swimming performance data were collected in a laboratory flume under three flow conditions through barriers and ramp. The experiments were conducted in a 24.4 m long, 2.1 m wide, and 1.62 m deep aluminum channel. Two geometric configurations of the laboratory model were designed based on channel characteristics that have been identified in natural river systems. At a given swimming speed and fish size, the highest guidance efficiencies of successful white sturgeon passage as a function of flow depth, flow velocity, turbulence intensity, Reynolds number, Froude number and shear velocity observed in the steady flow condition, tested with the horizontal ramp structure, occurred at an approach velocity of 0.33 ms^-1. The guidance efficiency of successful sturgeon passage increased both with increasing flow velocity and Froude number, and decreased both with the flow depth and the turbulence intensity. This study also provides evidence that tail beat frequency increases significantly with swimming speed, but tail beat frequency decreases with fish total length. Stride length increases both with swimming speed and fish total length. The importance of unsteady forces is expressed by the reduced frequency both with swimming speed and fish total length. Regression analysis indicates that swimming kinematic variables are explained by the swimming speed, the reduced frequency and the fish total length. The results emphasize the importance of fish ladder type patchiness when a fishway is designed for the passage of sturgeon.     

超临界CO_2流体萃取苦丁茶多糖的工艺优化

为了探讨超临界CO_2萃取广西苦丁茶中多糖的工艺条件,该研究采用超临界CO_2流体萃取技术分离苦丁茶多糖,利用苯酚-硫酸法对苦丁茶多糖含量进行测定,并考察不同萃取温度(35、40、45、50、55、60℃)、萃取压力(20、25、30、35、40、45、50 MPa)、萃取时间(30、60、90、120、150 min)、夹带剂(甲醇、95%甲醇、50%甲醇、无水乙醇、95%乙醇、50%乙醇)以及夹带剂(95%乙醇)用量(2.0、2.5、3、3.5、4.0、4.5、5.0 mL·min~(-1))对多糖得率的影响,通过设计正交实验方案,对超临界CO_2萃取广西苦丁茶多糖的提取工艺进行优化。结果表明:通过单因素和正交实验考察了苦丁茶多糖提取的主要影响因素,得到的最佳萃取工艺条件为萃取温度50℃,萃取压力40 MPa,夹带剂流量3.5 mL·min~(-1),萃取时间150 min;采用苯酚-硫酸法对苦丁茶多糖含量进行测定。在最优萃取条件下得到的苦丁茶多糖的提取率为7.05%。由此可知,采用超临界CO_2流体萃取,具有提取温度低、萃取率高、萃取周期短、低耗以及污染小等优点,适用于苦丁茶多糖的提取。     

Phytoseiid predators suppress populations of Bemisia tabaci on cucumber plants with alternative food

Phytoseiids are known to attack whiteflies, but it is an open question whether they can be used for biological control of these pest insects. Preselection experiments in the laboratory showed that two out of five phytoseiid species tested, Euseius scutalis and Typhlodromips swirskii, stood out in terms of their ability to develop and reproduce on a diet of Bemisia tabaci immatures. In this paper, we show that both predators are able to suppress whitefly populations on isolated cucumber plants in a greenhouse. Predatory mites were released 2 weeks in advance of the release of B. tabaci. To enable their survival and promote their population growth, they were provided weekly with alternative food, that is, Typha sp. pollen. A few weeks after whitefly introduction, the numbers of adult whiteflies on plants with predators were consistently lower than on plants without predators, where B. tabaci populations grew exponentially. After 9 weeks, this amounted to a 16- to 21-fold difference in adult whitefly population size. This shows that the two phytoseiid species are promising biocontrol agents of B. tabaci on greenhouse cucumber. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.