An absence of ecotype evolution in three Eucalyptus species colonizing coal mine soils with low pH and high aluminium content     

Louise M. Egerton-Warburton 《Water, air, and soil pollution》1995,83(3-4):335-349

The genetic structure of stands of Eucalyptus calophylla, E. patens and two subspecies of E. rudis trees colonizing acidic, aluminium-containing coal mining soils was compared with stands in an adjacent, uncontaminated forest using allozyme studies. For all Eucalyptus species, there was no significant difference in allele frequencies at any locus, genetic diversity measure or mating system between mine- and forest-site trees. In addition, a field assessment of progeny indicated that there was no significant difference in the survival of mine- or forest-site plants for E. patens and subspecies of E. rudis. A significantly higher percentage of forest-site E. calophylla plants survived over mine-site progeny. These findings indicated that ecotypes in Eucalyptus species may have not yet occurred in response to coal mining soils.  相似文献   

The impacts of individual plant species on rhizosphere microbial communities in soils of different fertility   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Louise?InnesEmail author  Philip?J.?Hobbs  Richard?D.?Bardgett 《Biology and Fertility of Soils》2004,40(1):7-13

To investigate the effects of individual plant species on microbial community properties in soils of differing fertility, a microcosm experiment was carried out using plant species representative of the dominant flora in semi-fertile temperate grasslands of northern England. Soil microbial biomass and activity were found to be significantly greater in the more fertile, agriculturally improved soil than in the less productive unimproved meadow soil. Differences in microbial community structure were also evident between the two soils, with fungal abundance being greater in the unimproved soil type. Individual plant species effects significantly differed between the two soils. Holcus lanatus and Anthoxanthum odoratum stimulated microbial biomass in the improved soil type, but negatively affected this measure in the unimproved soil. In both soil types, herb species generally had negative effects on microbial biomass. Patterns for microbial activity were less consistent, but as with microbial biomass, A. odoratum and H. lanatus promoted respiration, whereas the herbs negatively affected this measure. All plant species grown in the improved soil increased the abundance of fatty acids synthesised by bacteria (bacterial phospholipid fatty acid analysis) relative to bare soil, but they negatively impacted on this group of fatty acids in unimproved soil. Similarly, the abundance of the fungal fatty acid 18:26 was increased by all plants in the more fertile improved soil only, albeit non-significantly. Our data indicate that effects of plant species on microbial properties differ markedly in soils of differing fertility, making general predictions about how individual plants impact on soil properties difficult to make.  相似文献   

Mycobacterial Ku and ligase proteins constitute a two-component NHEJ repair machine     

Della M  Palmbos PL  Tseng HM  Tonkin LM  Daley JM  Topper LM  Pitcher RS  Tomkinson AE  Wilson TE  Doherty AJ 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2004,306(5696):683-685

In mammalian cells, repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) by nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ) is critical for genome stability. Although the end-bridging and ligation steps of NHEJ have been reconstituted in vitro, little is known about the end-processing reactions that occur before ligation. Recently, functionally homologous end-bridging and ligation activities have been identified in prokarya. Consistent with its homology to polymerases and nucleases, we demonstrate that DNA ligase D from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mt-Lig) possesses a unique variety of nucleotidyl transferase activities, including gap-filling polymerase, terminal transferase, and primase, and is also a 3' to 5' exonuclease. These enzyme activities allow the Mt-Ku and Mt-Lig proteins to join incompatible DSB ends in vitro, as well as to reconstitute NHEJ in vivo in yeast. These results demonstrate that prokaryotic Ku and ligase form a bona fide NHEJ system that encodes all the recognition, processing, and ligation activities required for DSB repair.  相似文献   

An oral vaccine against NMDAR1 with efficacy in experimental stroke and epilepsy     

During MJ  Symes CW  Lawlor PA  Lin J  Dunning J  Fitzsimons HL  Poulsen D  Leone P  Xu R  Dicker BL  Lipski J  Young D 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2000,287(5457):1453-1460

The brain is generally considered immunoprivileged, although increasing examples of immunological responses to brain antigens, neuronal expression of major histocompatibility class I genes, and neurological autoimmunity have been recognized. An adeno-associated virus (AAV) vaccine generated autoantibodies that targeted a specific brain protein, the NR1 subunit of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor. After peroral administration of the AAV vaccine, transgene expression persisted for at least 5 months and was associated with a robust humoral response in the absence of a significant cell-mediated response. This single-dose vaccine was associated with strong anti-epileptic and neuroprotective activity in rats for both a kainate-induced seizure model and also a middle cerebral artery occlusion stroke model at 1 to 5 months following vaccination. Thus, a vaccination strategy targeting brain proteins is feasible and may have therapeutic potential for neurological disorders.  相似文献   

Identification of a DNA nonhomologous end-joining complex in bacteria     

Weller GR  Kysela B  Roy R  Tonkin LM  Scanlan E  Della M  Devine SK  Day JP  Wilkinson A  d'Adda di Fagagna F  Devine KM  Bowater RP  Jeggo PA  Jackson SP  Doherty AJ 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2002,297(5587):1686-1689

In eukaryotic cells, double-strand breaks (DSBs) in DNA are generally repaired by the pathway of homologous recombination or by DNA nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ). Both pathways have been highly conserved throughout eukaryotic evolution, but no equivalent NHEJ system has been identified in prokaryotes. The NHEJ pathway requires a DNA end-binding component called Ku. We have identified bacterial Ku homologs and show that these proteins retain the biochemical characteristics of the eukaryotic Ku heterodimer. Furthermore, we show that bacterial Ku specifically recruits DNA ligase to DNA ends and stimulates DNA ligation. Loss of these proteins leads to hypersensitivity to ionizing radiation in Bacillus subtilis. These data provide evidence that many bacteria possess a DNA DSB repair apparatus that shares many features with the NHEJ system of eukarya and suggest that this DNA repair pathway arose before the prokaryotic and eukaryotic lineages diverged.  相似文献   

Three-dimensional orientation mapping in the transmission electron microscope     

Liu HH  Schmidt S  Poulsen HF  Godfrey A  Liu ZQ  Sharon JA  Huang X 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2011,332(6031):833-834

Over the past decade, efforts have been made to develop nondestructive techniques for three-dimensional (3D) grain-orientation mapping in crystalline materials. 3D x-ray diffraction microscopy and differential-aperture x-ray microscopy can now be used to generate 3D orientation maps with a spatial resolution of 200 nanometers (nm). We describe here a nondestructive technique that enables 3D orientation mapping in the transmission electron microscope of mono- and multiphase nanocrystalline materials with a spatial resolution reaching 1 nm. We demonstrate the technique by an experimental study of a nanocrystalline aluminum sample and use simulations to validate the principles involved.  相似文献   

Wnt3a-mediated formation of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate regulates LRP6 phosphorylation     

Pan W  Choi SC  Wang H  Qin Y  Volpicelli-Daley L  Swan L  Lucast L  Khoo C  Zhang X  Li L  Abrams CS  Sokol SY  Wu D 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2008,321(5894):1350-1353

The canonical Wnt-beta-catenin signaling pathway is initiated by inducing phosphorylation of one of the Wnt receptors, low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 6 (LRP6), at threonine residue 1479 (Thr1479) and serine residue 1490 (Ser1490). By screening a human kinase small interfering RNA library, we identified phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase type II alpha and phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 5-kinase type I (PIP5KI) as required for Wnt3a-induced LRP6 phosphorylation at Ser1490 in mammalian cells and confirmed that these kinases are important for Wnt signaling in Xenopus embryos. Wnt3a stimulates the formation of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphates [PtdIns (4,5)P2] through frizzled and dishevelled, the latter of which directly interacted with and activated PIP5KI. In turn, PtdIns (4,5)P2 regulated phosphorylation of LRP6 at Thr1479 and Ser1490. Therefore, our study reveals a signaling mechanism for Wnt to regulate LRP6 phosphorylation.  相似文献   

Long-term trends in the abundance of Mediterranean wetland vertebrates: From global recovery to localized declines     

Thomas Galewski  Ben Collen  Louise McRae  Jonathan Loh  Patrick Grillas  Michel Gauthier-Clerc  Vincent Devictor 《Biological conservation》2011,(5):1392-1399

Biodiversity loss is unevenly distributed in space and time. Species have reached critically low population sizes in some areas, and remain abundant in others. Similarly, some species may benefit from successful conservation plans, while others still experience severe population depletions driven by negative impacts of human activities. Although several indicators have been proposed to measure the fate of biodiversity, they are generally only implemented globally so their relevance for regional assessment is still unclear. Here, we calculated the first regional trend in the Living Planet Index for the Mediterranean wetlands (Med LPI), an indicator that summarizes the fate of global biological diversity based on the temporal trends in abundance of vertebrate populations. The Med LPI was based on 1641 vertebrate populations of 311 species recorded in Mediterranean wetlands from 1970–2008, in 27 different countries. We investigated whether trends in the Med LPI differed between eastern and western Mediterranean countries, which have different socio-economic contexts. Finally, we assessed whether and how the trend in the Med LPI was robust to changes in the number and identity of species considered. We found that, at the Mediterranean scale, the Med LPI increased steeply, which could be taken at first sight, as a general recovery of wetland biodiversity in this biogeographical region. However, we found highly contrasting spatial trends within the Mediterranean region: the average trend was positive for western and negative for eastern countries. Moreover, we showed that depending on the method used to estimate the trend in Med LPI, it can be sensitive to the number and identity of the species considered. We suggest that understanding the regional discrepancies of the trend in biodiversity indicators as well as their robustness to the species represented in the index will enhance progress assessment towards global and regional conservation strategies.  相似文献   

Proteomic analysis and differential expression in protein extracted from chicken with a varying growth rate and water-holding capacity     

Phongpa-Ngan P  Grider A  Mulligan JH  Aggrey SE  Wicker L 《Journal of agricultural and food chemistry》2011,59(24):13181-13187

Chickens from a randomly bred genetic line were segregated into high and low growth rates and high and low water-holding capacities (WHCs). The objective of this study was to identify protein markers associated with slow and fast growth rates and low and high WHCs from water-soluble protein (WSP) and crude myofibrillar protein (CMP) extracts of chicken breast muscle. Proteins were fractionated using two-dimensional electrophoresis, and a total of 22 protein spots were selected, excised, and analyzed by in-gel tryptic digestion and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Proteins expressed in extracts from slow and fast growth rates and low and high WHCs included metabolic enzymes, such as creatine kinase, pyruvate kinase, triosephosphate isomerase, and ubiqitin; housekeeping proteins, such as heat shock protein; contractile proteins, such as myosin heavy chain; actin; and also MHC isoforms and actin isoforms. The mass spectra of 20 protein spots significantly matched (protein score >83; P < 0.05) an online database. In CMP, there were unique proteins that were present only in the fast-growth population: gi|118099530 , gi|20664362 , gi|71895043 , gi|114794125 , gi|297343122 , and gi|71895043 . This information identified protein markers associated with growth rate and water holding capacity. Some of those protein markers could be added to the chicken database.  相似文献   

ADAMTS17 mutation associated with primary lens luxation is widespread among breeds     

Gould D  Pettitt L  McLaughlin B  Holmes N  Forman O  Thomas A  Ahonen S  Lohi H  O'Leary C  Sargan D  Mellersh C 《Veterinary ophthalmology》2011,14(6):378-384

Primary lens luxation (PLL) is a well-recognized, painful and potentially blinding inherited ocular condition in dogs. We screened PLL-affected dogs of 30 different breeds, to identify those which carried a previously described c.1473+1 G>A mutation in ADAMTS17 that is associated with PLL in Miniature Bull terriers, Lancashire Heelers, and Jack Russell terriers. This ADAMTS17 mutation was identified in PLL-affected dogs from 14 additional breeds. PLL-affected dogs from some breeds (most notably the Shar pei and the Brittany spaniel) did not carry the G1473+1A ADAMTS17 mutation, indicating they must suffer from a genetically distinct form of the condition. We also estimated the frequency of this ADAMTS17 mutation in some of the breeds. Our findings indicate the mutation segregates in a large number of different breeds of dog, many of which are terriers or breeds with terrier co-ancestry, but some of which have more diverse origins. Our results also indicate that the mutation is present at high frequency within most of the breeds in which it segregates. In the miniature bull terrier breed estimates of mutation frequency ranged from 0.27 to 0.39, corresponding to 7.3-15.2% PLL-affected dogs in this breed. We also identified an increased risk of PLL associated with heterozygosity at ADAMTS17, suggesting that carriers carry a low risk of developing PLL.  相似文献