The Shwachman-Bodian-Diamond syndrome protein mediates translational activation of ribosomes in yeast

The autosomal recessive disorder Shwachman-Diamond syndrome, characterized by bone marrow failure and leukemia predisposition, is caused by deficiency of the highly conserved Shwachman-Bodian-Diamond syndrome (SBDS) protein. Here, we identify the function of the yeast SBDS ortholog Sdo1, showing that it is critical for the release and recycling of the nucleolar shuttling factor Tif6 from pre-60S ribosomes, a key step in 60S maturation and translational activation of ribosomes. Using genome-wide synthetic genetic array mapping, we identified multiple TIF6 gain-of-function alleles that suppressed the pre-60S nuclear export defects and cytoplasmic mislocalization of Tif6 observed in sdo1Delta cells. Sdo1 appears to function within a pathway containing elongation factor-like 1, and together they control translational activation of ribosomes. Thus, our data link defective late 60S ribosomal subunit maturation to an inherited bone marrow failure syndrome associated with leukemia predisposition.     

真蓝甲藻(Gymnodinium eucyanochroum Tseng Sp.nov.)的亚微结构、色素性质及其在藻类进化中的意义

本文报告了在南京发现的蓝色裸甲藻,测定了它的藻胆色素。证明蓝色藻胆蛋白不是山“胞内蓝藻”(Cyanellen)所提供。电子显微镜的扫描表明细胞表面有众多的突起,不是光滑的;横沟内的鞭毛不是“带状”而是由细纤维丝膜状物拉着的螺旋形。透视电子显微镜观察表明,该藻有两个类型的细胞核,即“甲藻核结构”(Dinocaryotic structure)和“真核结构”,(Eucaryotic Structure),真核与叶绿体有一个共同的膜的包被,有一个与原生动物相近似的伸缩泡系统。叶绿体是分枝状,在细胞的边缘位,但也有其它形态。有淀粉颗粒而无“造粉核”或称”“蛋白核”(Pyrenoid),多数位于叶绿体外或之间,类囊体与一般甲藻不同,不是三个排成一条“带”而是两个排列成“带”。有发达的线粒体,和高尔基体;鞭毛不论纵沟内的或横沟内的,其横切面,均为9+2的形式,其纵切面是由纤维丝成束的结构。蓝色色素提取物,可见光最大吸收峰为456nm,与隐藻藻胆色素十分相似。从细胞亚微结构及其色素性质,作者认为它是藻类演化过程中的一个中间类型的甲藻共生体。     

The fate of injectant coal in blast furnaces: The origin of extractable materials of high molecular mass in blast furnace carryover dusts

The aim of the work was to investigate the fate of injectant coal in blast furnaces and the origin of extractable materials in blast furnace carryover dusts. Two sets of samples including injectant coal and the corresponding carryover dusts from a full sized blast furnace and a pilot scale rig have been examined. The samples were extracted using 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP) solvent and the extracts studied by size exclusion chromatography (SEC). The blast furnace carryover dust extracts contained high molecular weight carbonaceous material, of apparent mass corresponding to 10⁷?10⁸ u, by polystyrene calibration. In contrast, the feed coke and char prepared in a wire mesh reactor under high temperature conditions did not give any extractable material. Meanwhile, controlled combustion experiments in a high-pressure wire mesh reactor suggest that the extent of combustion of injectant coal in the blast furnace tuyeres and raceways is limited by time of exposure and very low oxygen concentration. It is thus likely that the extractable, soot-like material in the blast furnace dust originated in tars is released by the injectant coal. Our results suggest that the unburned tars were thermally altered during the upward path within the furnace, giving rise to the formation of heavy molecular weight (soot-like) materials.     

Co、Ni、Cu、Zn离子对蓝藻藻胆体光谱影响研究

应用吸收光谱和荧光光谱的方法研究了Ｃｏ（Ⅱ）、Ｎｉ（Ⅱ）、Ｃｕ（Ⅱ）和Ｚｎ（Ⅱ）４种重金属离子对螺旋藻及其藻胆体—类囊体膜的作用．４种金属离子可降低藻胆体在６２４ｎｍ的特征光吸收峰，并使藻胆体—类囊体膜的发射荧光峰下降、蓝移，使Ｆｐ／Ｆｃ（藻胆与叶绿素荧光比值）升高．这些结果表明，藻胆体是重金属离子作用的重要位点这一．在四种重金属中，Ｃｕ（Ⅱ）的作用最强．     

Induction of recombination between diverged sequences in a mammalian genome by a double-strand break

To investigate whether mammalian cells can carry out recombinational double-strand break (DSB) repair between highly diverged sequences, mouse fibroblasts were transfected with DNA substrates that contained a “recipient” thymidine kinase (tk) gene disrupted by the recognition site for endonuclease I-SceI. Substrates also contained a linked “donor” tk gene sequence. Following DSB induction by I-SceI, selection for tk-expressing clones allowed recovery of repair events occurring by nonhomologous end-joining or recombination with the donor sequence. Although recombinational repair was most efficient when donor and recipient shared near-perfect homology, we recovered recombination events between recipient and donor sequences displaying 20 % nucleotide mismatch. Recombination between such imperfectly matched (“homeologous”) sequences occurred at a frequency of 1.7 × 10^?7 events per cell and constituted 3 % of the DSB repair events recovered with the pair of homeologous sequences. Additional experiments were done with a substrate containing a donor sequence comprised of a region sharing high homology with the recipient and an adjacent region homeologous to the recipient. Recombinational DSB repair tracts initiating within high homology propagated into homeology in 11 of 112 repair events. These collective results contrasted with our earlier work in which spontaneous recombination (not intentionally induced by a DSB) between homeologous sequences occurred at an undetectable frequency of less than 10^?9 events per cell, and in which events initiating within high homology propagated into adjoining homeology in one of 81 events examined. Our current work suggests that homology requirements for recombination are effectively relaxed in proximity to a DSB in a mammalian genome.     

Low beta diversity of herbivorous insects in tropical forests

Recent advances in understanding insect communities in tropical forests have contributed little to our knowledge of large-scale patterns of insect diversity, because incomplete taxonomic knowledge of many tropical species hinders the mapping of their distribution records. This impedes an understanding of global biodiversity patterns and explains why tropical insects are under-represented in conservation biology. Our study of approximately 500 species from three herbivorous guilds feeding on foliage (caterpillars, Lepidoptera), wood (ambrosia beetles, Coleoptera) and fruit (fruitflies, Diptera) found a low rate of change in species composition (beta diversity) across 75,000 square kilometres of contiguous lowland rainforest in Papua New Guinea, as most species were widely distributed. For caterpillars feeding on large plant genera, most species fed on multiple host species, so that even locally restricted plant species did not support endemic herbivores. Large plant genera represented a continuously distributed resource easily colonized by moths and butterflies over hundreds of kilometres. Low beta diversity was also documented in groups with differing host specificity (fruitflies and ambrosia beetles), suggesting that dispersal limitation does not have a substantial role in shaping the distribution of insect species in New Guinea lowland rainforests. Similar patterns of low beta diversity can be expected in other tropical lowland rainforests, as they are typically situated in the extensive low basins of major tropical rivers similar to the Sepik-Ramu region of New Guinea studied here.     

Observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes

Deforestation in mid- to high latitudes is hypothesized to have the potential to cool the Earth's surface by altering biophysical processes. In climate models of continental-scale land clearing, the cooling is triggered by increases in surface albedo and is reinforced by a land albedo-sea ice feedback. This feedback is crucial in the model predictions; without it other biophysical processes may overwhelm the albedo effect to generate warming instead. Ongoing land-use activities, such as land management for climate mitigation, are occurring at local scales (hectares) presumably too small to generate the feedback, and it is not known whether the intrinsic biophysical mechanism on its own can change the surface temperature in a consistent manner. Nor has the effect of deforestation on climate been demonstrated over large areas from direct observations. Here we show that surface air temperature is lower in open land than in nearby forested land. The effect is 0.85 ± 0.44 K (mean ± one standard deviation) northwards of 45° N and 0.21 ± 0.53 K southwards. Below 35° N there is weak evidence that deforestation leads to warming. Results are based on comparisons of temperature at forested eddy covariance towers in the USA and Canada and, as a proxy for small areas of cleared land, nearby surface weather stations. Night-time temperature changes unrelated to changes in surface albedo are an important contributor to the overall cooling effect. The observed latitudinal dependence is consistent with theoretical expectation of changes in energy loss from convection and radiation across latitudes in both the daytime and night-time phase of the diurnal cycle, the latter of which remains uncertain in climate models.