Plant phylogeny drives arboreal caterpillar assemblages across the Holarctic

1. Assemblages of insect herbivores are structured by plant traits such as nutrient content, secondary metabolites, physical traits, and phenology. Many of these traits are phylogenetically conserved, implying a decrease in trait similarity with increasing phylogenetic distance of the host plant taxa. Thus, a metric of phylogenetic distances and relationships can be considered a proxy for phylogenetically conserved plant traits and used to predict variation in herbivorous insect assemblages among co‐occurring plant species.
2. Using a Holarctic dataset of exposed‐feeding and shelter‐building caterpillars, we aimed at showing how phylogenetic relationships among host plants explain compositional changes and characteristics of herbivore assemblages.
3. Our plant–caterpillar network data derived from plot‐based samplings at three different continents included >28,000 individual caterpillar–plant interactions. We tested whether increasing phylogenetic distance of the host plants leads to a decrease in caterpillar assemblage overlap. We further investigated to what degree phylogenetic isolation of a host tree species within the local community explains abundance, density, richness, and mean specialization of its associated caterpillar assemblage.
4. The overlap of caterpillar assemblages decreased with increasing phylogenetic distance among the host tree species. Phylogenetic isolation of a host plant within the local plant community was correlated with lower richness and mean specialization of the associated caterpillar assemblages. Phylogenetic isolation had no effect on caterpillar abundance or density. The effects of plant phylogeny were consistent across exposed‐feeding and shelter‐building caterpillars.
5. Our study reveals that distance metrics obtained from host plant phylogeny are useful predictors to explain compositional turnover among hosts and host‐specific variations in richness and mean specialization of associated insect herbivore assemblages in temperate broadleaf forests. As phylogenetic information of plant communities is becoming increasingly available, further large‐scale studies are needed to investigate to what degree plant phylogeny structures herbivore assemblages in other biomes and ecosystems.

     

Concentrations of glandular kallikrein in human nasal secretions increase during experimentally induced allergic rhinitis

We have previously demonstrated that a mixture of bradykinin and lysylbradykinin is generated in nasal secretions during the immediate allergic response to allergen. The present studies were performed to determine whether glandular kallikrein plays a role in kinin formation during the allergic reaction. Allergic individuals (n = 7) and nonallergic controls (n = 7) were challenged intranasally with appropriate allergen, and nasal lavages obtained before and after challenge were assayed for immunoreactive glandular kallikrein as well as for histamine, kinins, and N-alpha-tosyl-L-arginine methyl esterase (TAME-esterase) activity. The increase in postchallenge immunoreactive glandular kallikrein levels above baseline was significantly greater (p less than 0.01) for the allergic group (16.3 +/- 14 ng/ml; means +/- SD) than for the nonallergic controls (1.0 +/- 1.9 ng/ml). Increased levels of immunoreactive glandular kallikrein correlated with increases in kinins, histamine, and TAME-esterase activity and with the onset of clinical symptoms. Characterization of immunoreactive glandular kallikrein purified from postchallenge lavages by immunoaffinity chromatography confirmed the identity of this material as an authentic glandular kallikrein on the basis of its inhibition by protease inhibitors and by monospecific antibody to tissue kallikrein, its chromatographic behavior on gel filtration, and its ability to generate lysylbradykinin from highly purified human low m.w. kininogen. The specific activity of this purified material, in terms of kinin generation from kininogen, was very similar to that for authentic glandular kallikrein, suggesting that most if not all of the immunoreactive material purified from nasal lavages represented active enzyme. Inhibition studies by using pooled postchallenge lavages suggest that the majority of the kinin generating activity in these samples was due to glandular kallikrein. We conclude, therefore, that glandular kallikrein is secreted during the allergic response and can contribute to the formation of the lysylbradykinin produced during the allergic reaction.     

Delayed effect of pinealectomy on hibernation of the golden-mantled ground squirrel

Pinealectomy or radical sham pinealectomy were performed on adult golden-mantled ground squirrels,Spermophilus (=Citellus) lateralis, approximately 1 month prior to the date of normal winter emergence. The first hibernatory period and subsequent active season were not different in either of the operated groups from intact animals. However, although the initiation of the second hibernatory period was not affected in the pinealectomized animals, this group failed to show the progressive increase in the length of heterothermic bouts that is characteristic of normal hibernation. Also, terminal arousal occurred approximately 6 weeks earlier in the second year after pinealectomy. Male squirrels showed a corresponding time compression in their annual gonadal cycle, as was assessed by testicular state.These results suggest that the pineal gland of the golden-mantled ground squirrel is involved in the expression of the annual hibernatory cycle. In the absence of the pineal gland the adult of this species is unable to sustain the normal depth and duration of hibernation in the second over-wintering period following pinealectomy.We have carried out additional experiments with young, laboratory-bornS. lateralis and with field-caught, adultS. richardsonii. The results of these studies also are described in this paper.Presented at the Ninth International Congress of Biometeorology, 23 Sept – 1 Oct 1981, Osnabrück and Hohenheim, FRG.     

Snapshot prediction of carbon productivity,carbon and protein content in a Southern Ocean diatom using FTIR spectroscopy

Diatoms, an important group of phytoplankton, bloom annually in the Southern Ocean, covering thousands of square kilometers and dominating the region''s phytoplankton communities. In their role as the major food source to marine grazers, diatoms supply carbon, nutrients and energy to the Southern Ocean food web. Prevailing environmental conditions influence diatom phenotypic traits (for example, photophysiology, macromolecular composition and morphology), which in turn affect the transfer of energy, carbon and nutrients to grazers and higher trophic levels, as well as oceanic biogeochemical cycles. The paucity of phenotypic data on Southern Ocean phytoplankton limits our understanding of the ecosystem and how it may respond to future environmental change. Here we used a novel approach to create a ‘snapshot'' of cell phenotype. Using mass spectrometry, we measured nitrogen (a proxy for protein), total carbon and carbon-13 enrichment (carbon productivity), then used this data to build spectroscopy-based predictive models. The models were used to provide phenotypic data for samples from a third sample set. Importantly, this approach enabled the first ever rate determination of carbon productivity from a single time point, circumventing the need for time-series measurements. This study showed that Chaetoceros simplex was less productive and had lower protein and carbon content during short-term periods of high salinity. Applying this new phenomics approach to natural phytoplankton samples could provide valuable insight into understanding phytoplankton productivity and function in the marine system.     

Mediator structure and conformation change

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Effects of isoproterenol,theophylline and carbachol on cyclic nucleotide levels and relaxation of bovine tracheal smooth muscle

The effect of theophylline and isoproterenol on bovine tracheal smooth muscle tension and cyclic AMP levels was investigated. Concentrations of isoproterenol (4 × 10^?6 M) and theophylline (10 mM) that relaxed carbachol-contracted tracheal muscle by 85–95% did not significantly elevate control levels of cyclic AMP. In the absence of carbachol, several-fold increases in cyclic AMP were caused by isoproterenol although no elevations by theophylline were measurable. However, when isoproterenol and theophylline were administered together, theophylline potentiated the rise in cyclic AMP caused by isoproterenol. Phosphodiesterase studies in tracheal muscle showed the presence of a high and a low K_m enzyme which were inhibited by theophylline. Cyclic GMP levels were elevated in muscles contracted by carbachol as well as in carbachol-contracted muscles that had been relaxed by theophylline. In non-tension studies, in which the tracheal muscle was not under isometric tension, carbachol or theophylline alone increased cyclic GMP and together they synergistically elevated cyclic GMP. Atropine blocked the elevation caused by carbachol but not that caused by theophylline. In contrast to theophylline, isoproterenol did not elevate cyclic GMP, and in carbachol-contracted muscles that had been relaxed by isoproterenol, cyclic GMP levels were no different from control. Also, in non-tension studies, isoproterenol decreased basal cyclic GMP and antagonized the increase in cyclic GMP due to carbachol.The results indicate that whole-tissue levels of cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP do not correlate with the state of tracheal smooth muscle tension. Cyclic GMP levels do not clearly correlate with either contraction or relaxation. The inhibition by carbachol of increases in cyclic AMP due to isoproterenol and the inhibition by isoproterenol of increases in cyclic GMP due to carbachol provide evidence for a reciprocal cholinergic-adrenergic antagonism of cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP levels. The antagonism did not appear to be due to either cyclic nucleotide affecting the elevation of the other since the levels of both cyclic nucleotides were depressed.