Incubation temperature in the Australasian Gannet Moms senator

Gannets (Sulidae) and some other pelecaniforms incubate their eggs under the webs of their totipalmate feet. These species have a wide latitudinal distribution from tropics to subarctic, but little is known of the incubation temperatures attained. I measured egg temperatures of the Australasian Gannet Morns serrator at Cape Kidnappers, New Zealand, employing a data logger to obtain records every 15 min for day-long sample periods at undisturbed nests. Egg surface temperatures were relatively stable and little affected by ambient temperature. Mean surface temperature of natural eggs was 34.9^oC for samples taken during the first 4 days of incubation, but this then increased and stabilized at 36.5^oC. Internal temperature of pipped eggs was about 1^oC higher, attributable to embryonic heat production. Upper surface temperature of eggs kept in a fixed position was about 2^oC below deep adult body temperature (40.3^oC), suggesting heat is transferred directly from the body through the feet. Clutch size does not appear to be limited by an inability to warm two eggs. These results are in general agreement with measurements from other web incubators and are well within the range for species with conventional brood patch incubation.     

Plant coated vesicles

Abstract. Coated vesicles are organelles frequently encountered in many plant cell types often in association with the plasma membrane, Golgi apparatus, partially coated reticulum and multivesicular bodies. They are readily identified by a characteristic cage or basket composed of interlocking triskelions of the protein clathrin which are bound to the surface of the vesicle membrane. Although their transport function has been well studied and characterized in mammalian systems, the possible importance of coated vesicles as transport organelles in plant cells is only just beginning to be explored. In this review, the authors describe the structure of higher plant coated vesicles and discuss their possible involvement in the endocytosis of marcromolecules, in exocytosis and in the intracellular transport of material between cytoplasmic compartments. Their possible role in maintaining the macromolecular composition of the plasma membrane whilst allowing recycling of excess lipid bilayer and their potential application as vehicles for the introduction of foreign macromolecules into plant cells are discussed.     

MAJOR CLADES OF THE ANGIOSPERMS

Abstract— Our knowledge of fundamental angiosperm interrelationships is still very incomplete. The absence of a narrowly circumscribed gymnosperm outgroup, ideally the sister group, makes character evaluation, necessary for a cladistic analysis, difficult. According to current views the superorder Magnoliiflorae with a number of other groups, for example the monocotyledons, may represent a complex of families near the base of the angiosperms. Interrelationships of groups within the monocotyledons are much better understood than those between groups within the dicotyledons. A cladogram of monocotyledon orders based on earlier work by R. Dahlgren, H. T. Clifford, and F. N. Rasmussen is presented. A data matrix for a sample of the angiosperms with 61 characters for 49 taxa, mostly magnoliifloran and related families, is presented. The characters are polarized mainly according to the current view that the primitive angiosperm morphotype is a woody dicotyledon with strobiloid flowers. As an alternative the matrix is adjusted following W. C. Burger's conjecture that the primitive angiosperm was a herbaceous monocotyledon with trimerous flowers. Both matrices were run in a computerized parsimony analysis, resulting in numerous equally parsimonious solutions. This result is illustrative of the great homoplasy in the available character information, and also of how little actually is known about fundamental angiosperm interrelationships or phylogeny.     

Assignment of orthologous relationships among mammalian alpha-globin genes by examining flanking regions reveals a rapid rate of evolution

In order to study the relationships among mammalian alpha-globin genes, we have determined the sequence of the 3' flanking region of the human alpha 1 globin gene and have made pairwise comparisons between sequenced alpha-globin genes. The flanking regions were examined in detail because sequence matches in these regions could be interpreted with the least complication from the gene duplications and conversions that have occurred frequently in mammalian alpha-like globin gene clusters. We found good matches between the flanking regions of human alpha 1 and rabbit alpha 1, human psi alpha 1 and goat I alpha, human alpha 2 and goat II alpha, and horse alpha 1 and goat II alpha. These matches were used to align the alpha-globin genes in gene clusters from different mammals. This alignment shows that genes at equivalent positions in the gene clusters of different mammals can be functional or nonfunctional, depending on whether they corrected against a functional alpha-globin gene in recent evolutionary history. The number of alpha-globin genes (including pseudogenes) appears to differ among species, although highly divergent pseudogenes may not have been detected in all species examined. Although matching sequences could be found in interspecies comparisons of the flanking regions of alpha- globin genes, these matches are not as extensive as those found in the flanking regions of mammalian beta-like globin genes. This observation suggests that the noncoding sequences in the mammalian alpha-globin gene clusters are evolving at a faster rate than those in the beta-like globin gene clusters. The proposed faster rate of evolution fits with the poor conservation of the genetic linkage map around alpha-globin gene clusters when compared to that of the beta-like globin gene clusters. Analysis of the 3' flanking regions of alpha-globin genes has revealed a conserved sequence approximately 100-150 bp 3' to the polyadenylation site; this sequence may be involved in the expression or regulation of alpha-globin genes.      

The Utilization of Glucose and Proline by Culture Forms of Trypanosoma brucei*

Exponentially dividing culture forms of Trypanosoma brucei did not utilize glucose provided in the culture medium. The inclusion of 2-deoxyglucose in the medium had no effect on the growth of the trypanosomes. Glucose could be replaced by proline in the liquid phase of biphasic medium without affecting the doubling time of the organisms. Proline added to the culture medium in this way disappeared during the log phase of growth. Glucose in the culture medium was used by the trypanosomes only when the stationary growth phase had been reached. Lipid accumulated in stationary phase trypanosomes grown in glucose-containing medium, but there was no lipid accumulation in log phase organisms or in those which had been grown in proline-containing medium. Bloodstream trypanosomes transferred to liquid medium rapidly utilized glucose over the first 12 hr of culture, and this was accompanied by an accumulation of free pyruvate in the medium. The rate of glucose utilization fell off over the next 36 hr; this was accompanied by a lowering of free pyruvate in the medium and a rise in the proline oxidase activity of the trypanosomes. The possible biologic significance of proline to trypanosomes developing in the midgut of the tsetse vector is discussed.