Methane production by microbial mats under low sulphate concentrations

Cyanobacterial mats collected in hypersaline salterns were incubated in a greenhouse under low sulphate concentrations ([]) and examined for their primary productivity and emissions of methane and other major carbon species. Atmospheric greenhouse warming by gases such as carbon dioxide and methane must have been greater during the Archean than today in order to account for a record of moderate to warm palaeoclimates, despite a less luminous early sun. It has been suggested that decreased levels of oxygen and sulphate in Archean oceans could have significantly stimulated microbial methanogenesis relative to present marine rates, with a resultant increase in the relative importance of methane in maintaining the early greenhouse. We maintained modern microbial mats, models of ancient coastal marine communities, in artificial brine mixtures containing both modern [] (c. 70 mm ) and ‘Archean’[] (<0.2 mm ). At low [], primary production in the mats was essentially unaffected, while rates of sulphate reduction decreased by a factor of three, and methane fluxes increased by up to 10‐fold. However, remineralization by methanogenesis still amounted to less than 0.4% of the total carbon released by the mats. The relatively low efficiency of conversion of photosynthate to methane is suggested to reflect the particular geometry and chemical microenvironment of hypersaline cyanobacterial mats. Therefore, such mats were probably relatively weak net sources of methane throughout their 3.5 Ga history, even during periods of low environmental levels oxygen and sulphate.     

Effects of nitrogen limitation on water relations of jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) seedlings

The water relations of shoots of young jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) seedlings were examined 6 and 15 weeks after the initiation of four different dynamic nitrogen (N) treatments using a pressure-volume analysis. The N treatments produced a wide range of needle N concentrations from 12 to 32 mg g^?1 dry mass and a 10-fold difference in total dry mass at 15 weeks. Osmotic potential at full turgor did not change over the range of needle N concentrations observed. Osmotic potential at turgor-loss point, however, declined as N concentrations decreased, indicating an increased ability of N-deficient jack pine plants to maintain turgor. The increase could be attributed largely to an increase in cell wall elasticity, suggesting that elasticity changes may be a common, significant adaptation of plants to environmental stresses. Dry mass per unit saturated water almost doubled as needle N level dropped from 32 to 12 mg g^?1 and was inversely correlated to the bulk modulus of elasticity. This suggests that cell wall elasticity is determined more by the nature of its cross-linking matrix than by the total amount of cell wall material present. Developmental change was evident in the response of some water relation variables to N limitation.     

William Trager: An Appreciation

SYNOPSIS. Additional information on host interactions with trypanosomatid membranes was obtained from studies of a monomorphic strain of Trypanosoma brucei harvested at peak parasitemia from intact and lethally irradiated rats. Pellets of trypanosomes were fixed briefly in glutaraldehyde and processed for thin section electron microscopy or freeze-cleave replicas. Observations of sectioned material facilitated orientation and comparison of details seen in replicas. Fracture faces of cell body and flagellar membranes as well as 3-dimensional views of the nuclear membrane were studied. Cell body membranes of 80% of the organisms from intact rats contained random arrays of intramembranous particles (IMP). Aggregated clusters of particles appeared on the fracture faces of 20% of the trypanosomes. Some of these membranes had nonrandomly distributed particles aligned in distinct rows on the outer fracture face of both cell body and flagellum. Many inner face fractures of the cell body membranes had a particle arrangement similar to the longitudinal alignment of cytoskeletal microtubules. No aggregated particle distribution was seen in membranes of trypanosomes harvested from lethally irradiated rats. Replicas of trypanosome pellets also had plasmanemes as a series of attached, empty, coated membrane vesicles. These structures were found in close association with, as well as widely separated from the parasites. The shedding of these vesicles and the variation of particles in cell body membranes are discussed in light of antibody-induced architectural and antigenic changes in surface properties of trypanosomatids. The convex face of the inner membrane of the nucleus also is covered with randomly arrayed particles. More IMP were observed on the inner than on the outer nuclear membranes. Images of nuclear pores were also seen. The importance of these structures in drug and developmental studies of trypanosomes is discussed. On fracture faces of the flagellar membrane there were miniature maculae adherentes, unique to the inner fracture face and occurring only at regions of membrane apposition between cell body and flagellum. Each cluster of particles exposed by the freeze-cleave method corresponds to an electron-dense plaque seen in thin section images. However, because of a unique fracture pattern, these plaques were not revealed on the apposing body membranes, as illustrated in thin sectioned organisms.