Sulphate reduction in the hypolimnion and sediments of Lake Kinneret, Israel

1. Lake Kinneret is a warm (13–30°C) monomictic lake. Between January and June a heavy annual bloom of the dinoflagellate Peridinium gatunense dominates phytoplankton biomass (250 g m^?2). At the beginning of the summer, degradation and decomposition of the Peridinium biomass occurs, serving as a trigger for intense sulphate reduction in the hypolimnion and sediments. 2. The rates of sulphate reduction in the sediments varied seasonally from 12 to 1700 nmol SO₄.^?2 reduced cm^?3 day^?1 in December and July, respectively. The availability of organic matter and sulphate is high in June after the crash of the Peridinium bloom and the beginning of stratification and is lowest in December before overturn. 3. Sulphate concentrations in the hypolimnion range between 0.52 mM and 0.20 mM during mixing (January-April) and before overturn (December), respectively. The depletion in sulphate in the hypolimnion is stoichiometrically correlated to the increase in sulphide. The lake is not depleted of sulphate at any time, so the sulphate reduction process in Lake Kinneret is not limited by sulphate concentrations except in the sediments just before overturn.     

Venom Toxins: Plausible Evolution from Digestive Enzymes

Some hydrolytic enzymes are common to the pancreas, the mammaliansalivary glands and the snake venom glands. Phospholipase A,which is found in elapid and viperid venoms and in the mammalianpancreas, shows 29 common amino acid residues out of 118–125positions. Presynaptic neurotoxins and other venom toxins areusually composed of 2–3 units or subumts,one of whichis a phospholipase. The Vipera palaestinae two-component toxinretains its lethality when the enzyme is replaced by heterologousvenom phospholipases, but not by the pig pancreatic enzyme.This toxin is neutralized by a factor found in the blood serumof snakes, which binds to the phospholipase and inhibits itsactivity. The blood serum of snakes also neutralizes hemorrhaginsand inhibits the protease activity of the venom. It is hypothesizedthat the developing venom glands first produced enzymes thatwere already secreted by the pancreas and against which inhibitorswere present in the blood. These inhibitors facilitated theevolution of enzyme-based toxins by neutralizing any damagingsubstances that might have escaped from the venom glands.     

Heterotrophic activity,glucose uptake and primary productivity in Lake Kinneret*

SUMMARY. Chlorophyll, ATP and glucose concentrations as well as glucose uptake rate and primary production were determined every 2–4 h during three 24–h surveys in Lake Kinneret. In spite of the fluctuations in glucose uptake rate, the estimation of the daily glucose uptake rate from a single sampling carried out at 10.00 hours is justified. The same applies also for the primary production. Routine bi-weekly determinations of primary production and glucose uptake rate were carried out from October 1976 to July 1977. No correlations were found between glucose uptake rates and ambient concentrations of ATP, chlorophyll and glucose. The glucose uptake rate showed two distinct seasonal patterns; the period which was dominated by the Peridinium (January-April) and the rest of the year. In the former period the percentage of glucose-carbon utilized out of the carbon formed in the water column by the photosynthetic activity, fluctuated between 1 and 9%, and in the latter period fluctuated between 5 and 37%. The yearly average was 11.1%, SD 9.8.     

Water Uptake and Germination of Leguniinous Seeds Under Changing External Water Potential in Osmotic Solutions

Water uptake patterns and germination rates of chickpea (Cicerarietinum L.) and veteh (Vicia faba L.), as affected by constantand changing external water potential, were studied experimentally.The initial water uptake rate was found to decrease as the externalwater poten tial decreased, due te reduced diffusivity to waterof the seed coats, but the final water gained by imbibitionwas sufficient to ensure full germination. Germination ratedecreased with a decrease in the external water potential. Thedata presented suggest that more work should be directed towarda better understanding of the effects of external water potentialchanges on the enzymatic activity during and after the imbibitionstage.     

Phosphorus and nitrogen in a monomictic freshwater lake: employing cyanobacterial bioreporters to gain new insights into nutrient bioavailability

1. It is an uncontested paradigm that an adequate supply of the macronutrients nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) is critical for maintaining phytoplankton primary production in aquatic ecosystems; it has also been suggested that there is an optimal total N : total P ratio for this globally significant process. 2. This ratio, normally assessed by chemical determination of the major dissolved N and P species, poses a dilemma: do chemical measurements actually reflect the bioavailable fraction of these nutrient pools? Accurate determination of the various N and P species and their fluxes into phytoplankton cells is notoriously difficult. 3. To provide a possible solution to this difficulty, we engineered strains of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. strain PCC 7942 that ‘report’ on N and P bioavailability via a bioluminescent signal. These strains were used to quantify, for the first time, bioavailable concentrations of these essential macronutrients in a freshwater lake. 4. Only a small fraction (0.01–1%) of the chemically determined P may actually be bioavailable to this unicellular cyanobacterium and, by inference, to the phytoplankton community in general. In contrast, bioavailable N comprises most of the dissolved N pool. Consequently, bioavailable N : P ratios based on these assays are higher then those based on chemical determinations, indicating that P limitation in Lake Kinneret is more extensive then previously thought.     

Segregation of a viroid complex from a graft-transmissible dwarfing agent source for grapefruit trees

A marked variation in tree size occurred in grapefruit trees budded in trifoliate orange rootstock and inoculated with a graft-transmissible dwarfing agent (GTD) from grapefruit. Etrog citron (Citrus medico) inoculated with budwood collected from two GTD sub-types displaying very mild (VM) and mild (M) dwarfing effects showed only mild leaf epinasty, whereas the severe (S) subtype induced severe epinasty and stunting typical of infection by the original GTD source 225-T. The characteristic symptoms of the three sub-types were persistent following three serial transfers to 'Etrog' indicators.
Extracts from 'Etrog' citron containing either the 225-T or its derivative S displayed a profile of five viroid bands when analysed by the sequential PAGE system for detection of circular RNAs. The profile obtained included the well characterised 371 nucleotide citrus exocortis viroid (CEV) and four additional viroids of approximately 330, 300, 295 and 275 nucleotides. Sub-types M and VM lacked the CEV band and each contained a complement of only three viroids of 330, 295, 275 and 300, 295, 275 nucleotides, respectively. These results indicate that a segregation of the viroid complex in grapefruit budwood was a major factor in the variation seen among trees inoculated from the GTD source 225-T.     

Appearance and establishment of diazotrophic cyanobacteria in Lake Kinneret,Israel

1. We propose that the appearance and establishment of Nostocales (cyanobacteria) species of the genera Aphanizomenon and Cylindrospermopsis in the warm subtropical Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee, Israel) from 1994 was linked to changes in climate conditions and summer nitrogen (N) availability. 2. From 1994 to 2009, an increase in frequency of events of elevated water temperature (>29 °C) in summer, and to some extent a greater frequency of lower summer wind speed events, affected water turbulence and water column stratification, thus providing better physical conditions for the establishment of these populations. 3. In recent years, N‐depleted conditions in Lake Kinneret in early summer have promoted the development and domination of Nostocales that could gain an ecological advantage owing to their N₂‐fixing capability. 4. Nitrogen fixation rates coincided both with heterocyst abundance and with Nostocales biomass. The N supplied to the lake via nitrogen fixation ranged from negligible quantities when Nostocales represented only a minor component of the phytoplankton community to 123 tonnes when Cylindrospermopsis bloomed in 2005. This high N₂ fixation rate equals the average summer dissolved inorganic nitrogen load to the lake via the Jordan River.     

Some Aspects of Chloride Absorption by Bean Leaf Tissue

Rates of active chloride absorption by thin bean leaf slicesfrom 0.1 mM aqueous potassium chloride are about one-tenth ofthe rates for monovalent cation absorption by such slices andabout one-sixth of chloride absorption rates by excised beanroots. In the 2.0–5.0 mM concentration range chlorideabsorption rates of bean leaf and root tissues do not differmuch and are similar to those of monovalent cation absorptionrates.     

Uptake and respiration of organic compounds and heterotrophic growth in Pediastrum duplex (Meyen)*

SUMMARY. Axenic cultures of Pediastrum duplex, a green alga prominent in Lake Kinneret, Israel, assimilated and respired amino acids, acetate, glucose, glycollate and glycerol under conditions of light or darkness. Increased rates of uptake and respiration were observed in nutrient (P and N) depleted medium. Although ineffective in moderate light (30–100 μ Einstein m^?2 s^?1) glycerol, glucose and leucine, but not glycollate, stimulated growth and yields under faint light (～ 2 μ Einstein m^?2 s^?1). In the dark, glycerol (and sometimes leucine) permitted growth. Kinetic studies with leucine indicated an active uptake mechanism effective at substrate concentrations from 0.5 to 47 μg 1^?1.