Concordant phylogeography and cryptic speciation in two Western Palaearctic oak gall parasitoid species complexes

Little is known about the evolutionary history of most complex multi‐trophic insect communities. Widespread species from different trophic levels might evolve in parallel, showing similar spatial patterns and either congruent temporal patterns (Contemporary Host‐tracking) or later divergence in higher trophic levels (Delayed Host‐tracking). Alternatively, host shifts by natural enemies among communities centred on different host resources could disrupt any common community phylogeographic pattern. We examined these alternative models using two Megastigmus parasitoid morphospecies associated with oak cynipid galls sampled throughout their Western Palaearctic distributions. Based on existing host cynipid data, a parallel evolution model predicts that eastern regions of the Western Palaearctic should contain ancestral populations with range expansions across Europe about 1.6 million years ago and deeper species‐level divergence at both 8–9 and 4–5 million years ago. Sequence data from mitochondrial cytochrome b and multiple nuclear genes showed similar phylogenetic patterns and revealed cryptic genetic species within both morphospecies, indicating greater diversity in these communities than previously thought. Phylogeographic divergence was apparent in most cryptic species between relatively stable, diverse, putatively ancestral populations in Asia Minor and the Middle East, and genetically depauperate, rapidly expanding populations in Europe, paralleling patterns in host gallwasp species. Mitochondrial and nuclear data also suggested that Europe may have been colonized multiple times from eastern source populations since the late Miocene. Temporal patterns of lineage divergence were congruent within and across trophic levels, supporting the Contemporary Host‐tracking Hypothesis for community evolution.     

苯肼对红细胞在体衰老过程中微观流变特性的影响

在Brunara等人用苯肼使动物造成急性溶血性贫血的方法基础上,建立一种由急性溶血性贫血后,而诱发家兔幼红细胞增多的非正常生理状态的红细胞在体衰老模型,继而研究新生红细胞从产生到死亡死亡过程,即衰老过程的流变学特性的变化规律。通过对新生红细胞的压积、变形、取向及与之相应的全血的粘度、血沉等指标的连续60多天的监测,发现红细胞在衰老过程中的微观流变学特性确实有明显改变。红细胞在体衰老过程中微观流变特性逐渐变差。     

Fatty acid synthesis by slices from developing leaves

Fatty acid synthesis was studied in successive leaf sections from the base to the tip of developing barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), maize (Zea mays L.), rye grass (Lolium perenne L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivium L.) leaves. The basal regions of the leaves had the lowest rates of fatty acid synthesis and accumulated small amounts of very long chain fatty acids. Fatty acid synthesis was highest in the middle leaf sections in all four plants. Linolenic acid synthesis from [1-¹⁴C]acetate was highest in the distal leaf sections of rye grass. The labelling of the fatty acids of individual lipids of rye grass was examined and it was found that [¹⁴C]linolenic acid was highest in the galactolipids. Synthesis of this acid in the galactolipids was most active in leaf segment C. Only traces of [¹⁴C]linolenic acid were ever found in phosphatidylcholine and it is concluded that this phospholipid cannot serve as a substrate for linoleic acid desaturation in rye grass. The synthesis of fatty acids was sensitive to arsenite, fluoride and the herbicide EPTC. The latter was only inhibitory towards those leaf segments which made very long chain fatty acids. Formation of fatty acids from [1-¹⁴C]acetate was also studied in chloroplasts prepared from successive leaf sections of rye grass. Chloroplasts isolated from the middle leaf sections had the highest activity. Palmitic and oleic acids were the main fatty acid products in all chloroplast preparations. Linolenic acid synthesis was highest in chlorplasts isolated from the distal leaf sections of rye grass.     

The influence of pH and chloride on the retention of cadmium,lead, mercury,and zinc by soils

The extent of contamination of soils by toxic heavy metals not only depends on the rate of loading of the metal but also on the nature of the adsorbing surfaces, the degree of alkalinity or acidity of the soil and the presence of aqueous complexant ligands. This work reports on the role of pH on the retention of Cd, Hg, Pb and Zn by two soils and on the influence of the chloride, Cl‐, ion on the chemical speciation and retention of the four metals. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted from pH 3 to 7 in the presence of either 0.1 M LiCl or LiClO₄. The results of the study showed that high concentrations of Cl^‐ ions can greatly decrease the retention of Hg and have an increasingly lesser effect on Cd, Pb and Zn retention. The effect of the Cl^‐ons was directly related to the metal‐Cl formation constants. The results of computer modeling of Cd and Hg retention by goethite and humic acid fractions indicated the relative importance of aqueous vs. surface complexation on metal retention. For organic surfaces, which do not form ternary surface complexes, the presence of aqueous complexant ligands should always decrease the adsorption of the metal. For mineral surfaces, which do form ternary surface complexes, there may be increased or decreased metal retention depending on the formation constant of the aqueous metal‐ligand species, the intrinsic complexation constants for the various binary and ternary complexes of the metal and the concentration of the complexant ligand. Thus for Hg, which forms very strong aqueous species with Cl^‐ ions, reduced adsorption on goethite was predicted in the presence of 0.1 M LiCl, while enhanced adsorption was predicted for Cd and Pb. The results suggest caution in the disposal of Cl‐containing wastes onto metal‐contaminated soils. The deleterious effects of Cl^‐ ion addition would be greatest for soils with relatively high organic matter contents and low contents of hydrous ferric oxides.     

KRAS Mutation Analysis by PCR: A Comparison of Two Methods

Background

KRAS mutation assays are important companion diagnostic tests to guide anti-EGFR antibody treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Direct comparison of newer diagnostic methods with existing methods is an important part of validation of any new technique. In this this study, we have compared the Therascreen (Qiagen) ARMS assay with Competitive Allele-Specific TaqMan PCR (castPCR, Life Technologies) to determine equivalence for KRAS mutation analysis.

Methods

DNA was extracted by Maxwell (Promega) from 99 colorectal cancers. The ARMS-based Therascreen and a customized castPCR assay were performed according to the manufacturer’s instructions. All assays were performed on either an Applied Biosystems 7500 Fast Dx or a ViiA7 real-time PCR machine (both from Life Technologies). The data were collected and discrepant results re-tested with newly extracted DNA from the same blocks in both assay types.

Results

Of the 99 tumors included, Therascreen showed 62 tumors to be wild-type (WT) for KRAS, while 37 had KRAS mutations on initial testing. CastPCR showed 61 tumors to be wild-type (WT) for KRAS, while 38 had KRAS mutations. Thirteen tumors showed BRAF mutation in castPCR and in one of these there was also a KRAS mutation. The custom castPCR plate included several other KRAS mutations and BRAF V600E, not included in Therascreen, explaining the higher number of mutations detected by castPCR. Re-testing of discrepant results was required in three tumors, all of which then achieved concordance for KRAS. CastPCR assay Ct values were on average 2 cycles lower than Therascreen.

Conclusion

There was excellent correlation between the two methods. Although castPCR assay shows lower Ct values than Therascreen, this is unlikely to be clinically significant.     

Microbially influenced corrosion of galvanized steel pipes in aerobic water systems

Aims: To investigate the role of heterotrophic bacteria in the corrosion of galvanized steel in the presence of water. Methods and Results: Samples were taken from corroding galvanized steel pipes conveying water for specialist applications, and heterotrophic bacteria were isolated and cultured. The majority of bacteria were Gram‐negative aerobes and included Pseudomonas sp., Bacillus pumilus, Afipia spp. and Blastobacter denitrificans/Bradyrhizobium japonicum. Zinc tolerance was assessed through growth and zinc disc diffusion experiments. In general, zinc negatively influenced growth rates. An unidentified yeast also isolated from the system demonstrated a high tolerance to zinc at concentrations up to 4 g l^?1. Coupon experiments were performed to assess corrosion by the bacteria on galvanized steel and steel coupons. The majority of isolates as pure culture biofilms (69%) accelerated corrosion of galvanized coupons, assessed as zinc release, relative to sterile control coupons (P < 0·05). Pure culture biofilms did not increase the corrosion of steel, with four isolates demonstrating protective effects. Conclusions: Pure culture biofilms of heterotrophic bacteria isolated from a corroding galvanized pipe system were found to accelerate the corrosion of galvanized steel coupons. Significance and Impact of the Study: Microbially influenced corrosion is a potential contributor to sporadically occurring failures in galvanized steel systems containing water. Management strategies should consider microbial control as a means for corrosion prevention in these systems.     

Automatically Generated Algorithms for the Vertex Coloring Problem

The vertex coloring problem is a classical problem in combinatorial optimization that consists of assigning a color to each vertex of a graph such that no adjacent vertices share the same color, minimizing the number of colors used. Despite the various practical applications that exist for this problem, its NP-hardness still represents a computational challenge. Some of the best computational results obtained for this problem are consequences of hybridizing the various known heuristics. Automatically revising the space constituted by combining these techniques to find the most adequate combination has received less attention. In this paper, we propose exploring the heuristics space for the vertex coloring problem using evolutionary algorithms. We automatically generate three new algorithms by combining elementary heuristics. To evaluate the new algorithms, a computational experiment was performed that allowed comparing them numerically with existing heuristics. The obtained algorithms present an average 29.97% relative error, while four other heuristics selected from the literature present a 59.73% error, considering 29 of the more difficult instances in the DIMACS benchmark.     

Isolation and sources of 'blown pack' spoilage clostridia in beef abattoirs

Aims:  (i) To evaluate methods for isolation and molecular detection of blown pack spoilage (BPS) clostridia and (ii) to survey beef abattoirs for sources and distributions of Clostridium estertheticum and Cl. gasigenes .
Methods and Results:  Molecular detection and conventional isolation methods were used to detect and recover BPS associated clostridia ( Cl. estertheticum and Cl. gasigenes ), from four commercial Irish beef abattoirs and their environments, during a one year study. DNA-based methods detected 218 Cl. estertheticum and 300 Cl. gasigenes , from 1680 samples, whereas culture-methods only yielded 17 Cl. estertheticum and 176 Cl. gasigenes isolates. BPS Clostridia were frequently detected in beef abattoirs and their environments, especially at areas prior to hide removal. The study noted a higher percentage of positive samples during the month of May (38·6%).
Conclusions:  (i) DNA-based techniques are the most reliable ways to determine the presence of these organisms in various samples and (ii) hides and faeces are the main reservoirs of BPS clostridia in the abattoirs.
Significance and Impact of the Study:  This paper provides useful information to detect BPS organisms, as well as to develop a science-based control strategy of the problem.