Pollinator genetics and pollination: do honey bee colonies selected for pollen‐hoarding field better pollinators of cranberry Vaccinium macrocarpon?

1. Genetic polymorphisms of flowering plants can influence pollinator foraging but it is not known whether heritable foraging polymorphisms of pollinators influence their pollination efficacies. Honey bees Apis mellifera L. visit cranberry flowers for nectar but rarely for pollen when alternative preferred flowers grow nearby. 2. Cranberry flowers visited once by pollen‐foraging honey bees received four‐fold more stigmatic pollen than flowers visited by mere nectar‐foragers (excluding nectar thieves). Manual greenhouse pollinations with fixed numbers of pollen tetrads (0, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32) achieved maximal fruit set with just eight pollen tetrads. Pollen‐foraging honey bees yielded a calculated 63% more berries than equal numbers of non‐thieving nectar‐foragers, even though both classes of forager made stigmatic contact. 3. Colonies headed by queens of a pollen‐hoarding genotype fielded significantly more pollen‐foraging trips than standard commercial genotypes, as did hives fitted with permanently engaged pollen traps or colonies containing more larvae. Pollen‐hoarding colonies together brought back twice as many cranberry pollen loads as control colonies, which was marginally significant despite marked daily variation in the proportion of collected pollen that was cranberry. 4. Caloric supplementation of matched, paired colonies failed to enhance pollen foraging despite the meagre nectar yields of individual cranberry flowers. 5. Heritable behavioural polymorphisms of the honey bee, such as pollen‐hoarding, can enhance fruit and seed set by a floral host (e.g. cranberry), but only if more preferred pollen hosts are absent or rare. Otherwise, honey bees' broad polylecty, flight range, and daily idiosyncrasies in floral fidelity will obscure specific pollen‐foraging differences at a given floral host, even among paired colonies in a seemingly uniform agricultural setting.     

Network environ analysis for socio-economic water system

Embodied water in a socio-economic system refers to the hidden water contained in products traded from one region or one sector to another and has been the center of concern for water management in recent years. However, most models developed for water system analysis ignore cycling and indirect flows, making it difficult to explain the effects of structure on these factors among sectors. Therefore, those models fail to examine the water utilization efficiency from an integral view. In this study, we investigate an embodied socio-economic water system using network analysis developed originally for ecological systems. In this manner, we identify structural and throughflow indicators, such as Finn Cycling Index, Indirect effects ratio, and aggradation, to show the efficiency of water utilization. The three indicators show different perspectives of the system's efficiency change over time, indicating that only the combination of these three indicators can provide a holistic portray about efficiency. Results showed that the structure influenced the cycling and indirect flows, and from a throughflow perspective, the system depends on large boundary inputs of fresh water. Furthermore, the values of Cycling Index and Indirect effect ratio are much lower than for natural food webs, implying that the policies that led to the structural change and reduction of boundary fresh water inputs do not lead to positive water utilization seen in natural systems. This study provides a novel perspective and methodology for assessing the structure and efficiency of water utilization system with a whole perspective.     

Production of reactive oxygen species by withaferin A causes loss of type collagen expression and COX-2 expression through the PI3K/Akt,p38, and JNK pathways in rabbit articular chondrocytes

Withaferin A (WFA) is a major chemical constituent of Withania somnifera, also known as Indian ginseng. Many recent reports have provided evidence of its anti-tumor, anti-inflammation, anti-oxidant, and immune modulatory activities. Although the compound appears to have a large number of effects, its defined mechanisms of action have not yet been determined.     

Structural changes in the innercortex cells of soybean root nodules are induced by short-term exposure to high salt or oxygen concentrations

After a 2 h exposure of intact soybean nodules to high concentrations of NaCl (100mol m_?3) or oxygen (8OkPa O₂), morphometric computations carried out using an image analysis technique on semi-thin sections showed that both treatments induced a decrease in the area of the inner-cortex cells, which were then characterized by a tangential elongation. In contrast, no significant change in area occurred in the middle-cortex cells although their elongation decreased. Electron microscopic observations showed that in the inner-cortex cells changes included the presence of wall infoldings, an enlarged periplasmic space and a lobate nucleus whose chromatin distribution differed from that of the control. Structural changes also occurred in the endoplasmic reticulum, microbodies, mitochondria and plastids. From several of these changes, which are similar to those noted in osmocontractil cells in response to external stimuli, it can be hypothesized that the inner cortex may provide a potential mechanism for the control of oxygen diffusion through the nodules.     

α-Amylase (AmyP) of glycoside hydrolase subfamily GH13_37 is resistant to various toxic compounds

The α-amylase (AmyP) from a marine metagenomic library shows very low sequence similarity with characterized α-amylases and belongs to a new glycoside hydrolase subfamily GH13_37. This amylase retained above 87% residual activity in the presence of metal ions (concentrations <10 mM) tested except Hg²⁺ and was strongly stimulated by 5 mM Cu²⁺. AmyP was active over a wide range of salt concentration (0–3 M) with the optimal concentration at 1 M. The enzyme exhibited 119, 106, 108, 42 and 31% of its activity the presence of 2% Tween 20, Tween 40, Triton X-100, SDS and CTAB, respectively, showing excellent resistance. Oxidizing agents (H₂O₂ and NaClO₃) not strongly inactivated the enzyme. DTT was found to greatly enhance the activity (to 198% of original activity), while 2-mercaptoethanol had no significant effect on the enzyme. Moreover, AmyP retained considerable activity in both hydrophobic solvents and hydrophilic solvents, and n-octanol even increased the amylase activity to 113%. Compared to other α-amylases capable of resisting toxic compounds, AmyP was the first α-amylase with such broad spectrum resistance.     

Ribosomal Tag Pyrosequencing of DNA and RNA Reveals “Rare” Taxa with High Protein Synthesis Potential in the Sediment of a Hypersaline Lake in Western Australia

Little is known about the potential activity of microbial communities in hypersaline sediment ecosystems. Ribosomal tag libraries of DNA and RNA extracted from the sediment of Lake Strawbridge (Western Australia) revealed bacterial and archaeal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with high RNA/DNA ratios providing evidence for the presence of ‘rare’ but potentially “active” taxa. Among the ‘rare’ bacterial taxa Halomonas, Salinivibrio and Idiomarina showed the highest protein synthesis potential. Rare but ‘active’ archaeal OTUs were related to the KTK 4A cluster and the Marine-Benthic-Groups B and D. We present the first molecular analysis of the microbial diversity and protein synthesis potential of rare microbial taxa in a hypersaline sediment ecosystem.     

Hunter Movement and its Role in National Game Bird Surveys

Analysis of sample survey data on the species composition of waterfowl kill for resident and nonresident hunters for provinces of Canada during 1974 and 1975 showed that a successful game bird hunter who hunted in more than one area (degree block) had both a higher average season kill and more successful days of hunting in which one or more birds were bagged, than one who hunted in the same area during the season. Adjustment for days hunted resulted in a higher daily hunting for those who hunted in more than one degree block. However, the higher kill of the successful hunter is attributable more to a larger number of days hunted than to a larger kill per successful day. Also, hunters hunting in more than one degree block had their successful hunting days more evenly spread across the season. The estimates of kill per successful hunter and days hunted for stratified sampling by areas of hunting were considerably more efficient than simple random sampling.