Levans produced by four Zymomonas mobilis strains showed antitumour activity against sarcoma 180 and Ehrlich carcinoma in Swiss albino mice. Levans from two strains (ZAP and CP4) had the highest effects. NMR analysis showed that the polymers were composed only of fructose units. The results suggested that the antineoplasic effect is associated to the polysaccharide molecular weight and that a particular molecular weight range may be responsible for this effect. 相似文献
The internal transcribed spacer region (ITS1 and ITS2) of the 18S-25S
nuclear ribosomal DNA sequence and the intervening 5.8S region were
sequenced from three individuals in each of eight taxa of the Mimulus
guttatus species complex. Three discrete variants, or "types," of ITS
sequences were found, among which 30%-40% of sites differed, compared with
1%-2% within types. Dot plots indicate that these types were not related by
conspicuous rearrangements or inversions. More than one ITS type was often
found in the same taxon, and two of three ITS types span species
boundaries, indicating their presence prior to speciation. These ITS
sequences showed essentially no positional homology with the nearest
sequenced relative, tomato. In contrast, the 5.8S region was relatively
unvaried, with 8 of 162 sites varied in the sample among all eight taxa.
The phylogeny inferred by the most common ITS sequence type, rooted by the
two other ITS types, agreed with isozymes in showing the distinctness of M.
nudatus, M. laciniatus, and M. tilingii from the other five taxa.
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Species’ extinctions have spurred debate on whether interactions among few or among many species cause a positive diversity–productivity relationship in experimentally assembled grasslands. We addressed this question by quantifying the productivity of 14 species across an experimental diversity gradient in Minnesota. We found that interspecific interactions leading to coexistence and competitive displacement both determine which species overyield; i.e. are more productive at high diversity. Overyielding species were either superior N competitors (C4 grasses) or N fixers (legumes). Surprisingly, these species were not most productive in monoculture, thus, the ‘selection’ of productive species in diverse plots did not cause the positive diversity–productivity relationship. Both positive (with legumes) and negative interspecific interactions (with C4 grasses) determined whether individual species overyielded. Foliar pathogens did not cause overyielding, although other natural enemies may be responsible. Overyielding species are not displacing underyielding species over time, implying that other diversity‐promoting interactions also operate in this experiment. 相似文献
The 70-kilodalton heat shock protein (hsp70) family of molecular
chaperones, which contains both stress-inducible and normally abundant
constitutive members, is highly conserved across distantly related taxa.
Analysis of this protein family in individuals from an outbred population
of tropical topminnows, Poeciliopsis gracilis, showed that while
constitutive hsp70 family members showed no variation in protein isoforms,
inducibly synthesized hsp70 was polymorphic. Several species of
Poeciliopsis adapted to desert environments exhibited lower levels of
inducible hsp70 polymorphism than the tropical species, but constitutive
forms were identical to those in P. gracilis, as they were in the
confamilial species Gambusia affinis. These differences suggest that
inducible and constitutive members of this family are under different
evolutionary constraints and may indicate differences in their function
within the cell. Also, northern desert species of Poeciliopsis synthesize a
subset of the inducible hsp70 isoforms seen in tropical species. This
distribution supports the theory that ancestral tropical fish migrated
northward and colonized desert streams; the subsequent decrease in
variation of inducible hsp70 may have been due to genetic drift or a
consequence of adaptation to the desert environment. Higher levels of
variability were found when the 30- kilodalton heat shock protein (hsp30)
family was analyzed within different strains of two desert species of
Poeciliopsis and also in wild-caught individuals of Gambusia affinis. In
both cases the distribution of hsp30 isoform diversity was similar to that
seen previously with allozyme polymorphisms.
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Plant growth can be limited by resource acquisition and defence against consumers, leading to contrasting trade‐off possibilities. The competition‐defence hypothesis posits a trade‐off between competitive ability and defence against enemies (e.g. herbivores and pathogens). The growth‐defence hypothesis suggests that strong competitors for nutrients are also defended against enemies, at a cost to growth rate. We tested these hypotheses using observations of 706 plant populations of over 500 species before and following identical fertilisation and fencing treatments at 39 grassland sites worldwide. Strong positive covariance in species responses to both treatments provided support for a growth‐defence trade‐off: populations that increased with the removal of nutrient limitation (poor competitors) also increased following removal of consumers. This result held globally across 4 years within plant life‐history groups and within the majority of individual sites. Thus, a growth‐defence trade‐off appears to be the norm, and mechanisms maintaining grassland biodiversity may operate within this constraint. 相似文献
Introduction: Urine is a highly desirable biospecimen for biomarker analysis because it can be collected recurrently by non-invasive techniques, in relatively large volumes. Urine contains cellular elements, biochemicals, and proteins derived from glomerular filtration of plasma, renal tubule excretion, and urogenital tract secretions that reflect, at a given time point, an individual’s metabolic and pathophysiologic state.
Areas covered: High-resolution mass spectrometry, coupled with state of the art fractionation systems are revealing the plethora of diagnostic/prognostic proteomic information existing within urinary exosomes, glycoproteins, and proteins. Affinity capture pre-processing techniques such as combinatorial peptide ligand libraries and biomarker harvesting hydrogel nanoparticles are enabling measurement/identification of previously undetectable urinary proteins.
Expert commentary: Future challenges in the urinary proteomics field include a) defining either single or multiple, universally applicable data normalization methods for comparing results within and between individual patients/data sets, and b) defining expected urinary protein levels in healthy individuals. 相似文献
Many ecosystems worldwide are dominated by introduced plant species, leading to loss of biodiversity and ecosystem function. A common but rarely tested assumption is that these plants are more abundant in introduced vs. native communities, because ecological or evolutionary-based shifts in populations underlie invasion success. Here, data for 26 herbaceous species at 39 sites, within eight countries, revealed that species abundances were similar at native (home) and introduced (away) sites - grass species were generally abundant home and away, while forbs were low in abundance, but more abundant at home. Sites with six or more of these species had similar community abundance hierarchies, suggesting that suites of introduced species are assembling similarly on different continents. Overall, we found that substantial changes to populations are not necessarily a pre-condition for invasion success and that increases in species abundance are unusual. Instead, abundance at home predicts abundance away, a potentially useful additional criterion for biosecurity programmes. 相似文献
There have been relatively few tests of resource-ratio theory in terrestrial systems. Additionally, resources are known to
be an important factor determining the success of invasive species. Here I discuss how the study by Newingham and Belnap (pp.
29–40, this issue) tests predictions of resource-ratio theory and how they apply it to questions of invasion by Bromus tectorum in a terrestrial grassland. 相似文献
Using in vitro drug sensitivity data coupled with Affymetrix microarray data, we developed gene expression signatures that predict sensitivity to individual chemotherapeutic drugs. Each signature was validated with response data from an independent set of cell line studies. We further show that many of these signatures can accurately predict clinical response in individuals treated with these drugs. Notably, signatures developed to predict response to individual agents, when combined, could also predict response to multidrug regimens. Finally, we integrated the chemotherapy response signatures with signatures of oncogenic pathway deregulation to identify new therapeutic strategies that make use of all available drugs. The development of gene expression profiles that can predict response to commonly used cytotoxic agents provides opportunities to better use these drugs, including using them in combination with existing targeted therapies. 相似文献