Functional connectivity in the retina at the resolution of photoreceptors

To understand a neural circuit requires knowledge of its connectivity. Here we report measurements of functional connectivity between the input and ouput layers of the macaque retina at single-cell resolution and the implications of these for colour vision. Multi-electrode technology was used to record simultaneously from complete populations of the retinal ganglion cell types (midget, parasol and small bistratified) that transmit high-resolution visual signals to the brain. Fine-grained visual stimulation was used to identify the location, type and strength of the functional input of each cone photoreceptor to each ganglion cell. The populations of ON and OFF midget and parasol cells each sampled the complete population of long- and middle-wavelength-sensitive cones. However, only OFF midget cells frequently received strong input from short-wavelength-sensitive cones. ON and OFF midget cells showed a small non-random tendency to selectively sample from either long- or middle-wavelength-sensitive cones to a degree not explained by clumping in the cone mosaic. These measurements reveal computations in a neural circuit at the elementary resolution of individual neurons.     

The arrangement of the three cone classes in the living human eye

Human colour vision depends on three classes of receptor, the short- (S), medium- (M), and long- (L) wavelength-sensitive cones. These cone classes are interleaved in a single mosaic so that, at each point in the retina, only a single class of cone samples the retinal image. As a consequence, observers with normal trichromatic colour vision are necessarily colour blind on a local spatial scale. The limits this places on vision depend on the relative numbers and arrangement of cones. Although the topography of human S cones is known, the human L- and M-cone submosaics have resisted analysis. Adaptive optics, a technique used to overcome blur in ground-based telescopes, can also overcome blur in the eye, allowing the sharpest images ever taken of the living retina. Here we combine adaptive optics and retinal densitometry to obtain what are, to our knowledge, the first images of the arrangement of S, M and L cones in the living human eye. The proportion of L to M cones is strikingly different in two male subjects, each of whom has normal colour vision. The mosaics of both subjects have large patches in which either M or L cones are missing. This arrangement reduces the eye's ability to recover colour variations of high spatial frequency in the environment but may improve the recovery of luminance variations of high spatial frequency.     

Cortical magnification factor and the ganglion cell density of the primate retina

It has long been contentious whether the large representation of the fovea in the primate visual cortex (V1) indicates a selective magnification of this part of the retina, or whether it merely reflects the density of retinal ganglion cells. The measurement of the retinal ganglion-cell density is complicated by lateral displacements of cells around the fovea and the presence of displaced amacrine cells in the ganglion cell layer. We have now identified displaced amacrine cells by GABA immunohistochemistry and by retrograde degeneration of ganglion cells. By reconstructing the fovea from serial sections, we were able to compare the densities of cones, cone pedicles and ganglion cells; in this way we found that there are more than three ganglion cells per foveal cone. Between the central and the peripheral retina, the ganglion cell density changes by a factor of 1,000-2,000, which is within the range of estimates of the cortical magnification factor. There is therefore no need to postulate a selective magnification of the fovea in the geniculate and/or the visual cortex.     

Imperfect optics may be the eye's defence against chromatic blur

The optics of the eye cause different wavelengths of light to be differentially focused at the retina. This phenomenon is due to longitudinal chromatic aberration, a wavelength-dependent change in refractive power. Retinal image quality may consequently vary for the different classes of cone photoreceptors, cells tuned to absorb bands of different wavelengths. For instance, it has been assumed that when the eye is focused for mid-spectral wavelengths near the peak sensitivities of long- (L) and middle- (M) wavelength-sensitive cones, short-wavelength (bluish) light is so blurred that it cannot contribute to and may even impair spatial vision. These optical effects have been proposed to explain the function of the macular pigment, which selectively absorbs short-wavelength light, and the sparsity of short-wavelength-sensitive (S) cones. However, such explanations have ignored the effect of monochromatic wave aberrations present in real eyes. Here we show that, when these effects are taken into account, short wavelengths are not as blurred as previously thought, that the potential image quality for S cones is comparable to that for L and M cones, and that macular pigment has no significant function in improving the retinal image.     

Disoriented pathfinding by pioneer neurone growth cones deprived of filopodia by cytochalasin treatment

A major question in developmental neurobiology is how developing nerve cells accurately extend processes to establish connections with their target cells. This problem involves both the nature of cues for growth cone guidance and also the question of how growth cones survey their environment for cues and respond by altering their direction of migration. The filopodia which normally extend from neuronal growth cones have been shown to affect growth cone steering in vitro and it has been proposed that they function in vivo in the detection of and response to guidance cues. This hypothesis could be tested in vivo if growth cones which normally have filopodia could be induced to migrate in their absence. The pair of Ti1 neurones are the first neurones to extend axons through the limb buds of embryonic grasshoppers. We report here an examination of the migration of Ti1 pioneer growth cones deprived of filopodia by culture in agents which disrupt actin microfilaments. Under these conditions, axons continue to extend but a large percentage of growth cones are highly disoriented. Our results indicate that Ti1 filopodia are not necessary for axonal elongation in vivo but that they are important for correctly oriented growth cone steering.     

Spatial structure of cone inputs to receptive fields in primate lateral geniculate nucleus.

Human colour vision depends on three classes of cone photoreceptors, those sensitive to short (S), medium (M) or long (L) wavelengths, and on how signals from these cones are combined by neurons in the retina and brain. Macaque monkey colour vision is similar to human, and the receptive fields of macaque visual neurons have been used as an animal model of human colour processing. P retinal ganglion cells and parvocellular neurons are colour-selective neurons in macaque retina and lateral geniculate nucleus. Interactions between cone signals feeding into these neurons are still unclear. On the basis of experimental results with chromatic adaptation, excitatory and inhibitory inputs from L and M cones onto P cells (and parvocellular neurons) were thought to be quite specific (Fig. 1a). But these experiments with spatially diffuse adaptation did not rule out the 'mixed-surround' hypothesis: that there might be one cone-specific mechanism, the receptive field centre, and a surround mechanism connected to all cone types indiscriminately (Fig. 1e). Recent work has tended to support the mixed-surround hypothesis. We report here the development of new stimuli to measure spatial maps of the linear L-, M- and S-cone inputs to test the hypothesis definitively. Our measurements contradict the mixed-surround hypothesis and imply cone specificity in both centre and surround.     

杉木种子园球果虫害及变色对种子影响的研究

1989年在福建省洋口林场杉木种子园检测了3个无性系(6421,47,33)、64株标准株、3508个球果。结果表明球果害虫主要是杉木球果麦蛾,而杉木扁长蝽等的危害及炭疽菌、散斑壳菌的侵染可导致球果变色。方差分析显示:球果虫害及变色明显影响鲜果重、种子重、千粒重及出籽率,但它们对发芽率及涩籽率无显著影响。     

A presynaptic action of glutamate at the cone output synapse

Neurotransmitter release from many central nervous system synapses is regulated by 'autoreceptors' at the synaptic terminal, which bind the released transmitter and alter release accordingly. The photoreceptors of lower vertebrates are thought to use glutamate as a neurotransmitter. Glutamate conveys the visual signal to postsynaptic bipolar and horizontal cells, but has been reported not to act on the photoreceptors themselves. We show here that glutamate evokes a current, carried largely by chloride ions, in cones isolated from the tiger salamander retina. This response is localized to the synaptic terminal of the cone. Removing external sodium blocks this action of glutamate. These results suggest the existence of a positive feedback loop at the cone output synapse: over most of the light-response range, glutamate released by depolarization of the cone will cause further depolarization, increasing the gain of phototransduction. Glutamate released from rods may also polarize cones, modulating the gain of the cone output synapse. This system is surprisingly different from the autoreceptor systems for most other transmitters, which act in a negative feedback way.     

中条山种子植物区系地理研究

中条山植物区系有种子植物４７９属，划归５组１５种分布区类型，其中世界分布５２属，热带分布１０２属，温带分布２９５属，古地中海和泛地中海分布１７属，中国特有分布１３属，并对１５５中分布类型做了论述。     

Origins of major human infectious diseases

Many of the major human infectious diseases, including some now confined to humans and absent from animals, are 'new' ones that arose only after the origins of agriculture. Where did they come from? Why are they overwhelmingly of Old World origins? Here we show that answers to these questions are different for tropical and temperate diseases; for instance, in the relative importance of domestic animals and wild primates as sources. We identify five intermediate stages through which a pathogen exclusively infecting animals may become transformed into a pathogen exclusively infecting humans. We propose an initiative to resolve disputed origins of major diseases, and a global early warning system to monitor pathogens infecting individuals exposed to wild animals.     

Spectral sensitivity of human cone photoreceptors

The brain computes visual colour by analysing the relative excitations of three types of retinal cones. Each cone excitation is governed by a spectral sensitivity function which relates the amplitude of the neural response to wavelength at constant light intensity. The spectral sensitivities of human cones are not well characterized. We report measuring the sensitivities by recording electrical responses of human cones to stimuli of different wavelengths. Spectral sensitivities of 'green' and 'red' cones, determined over the entire visible region, show peaks near 530 and 560 nm respectively, and are remarkably similar to those of the old-world monkey Macaca fascicularis. They satisfactorily predict the photopic luminosity function, a measure of the sensitivity of cone-mediated human vision to light of different wavelengths. The kinetics of the light responses of human cones also appeared similar to those of macaque cones: the time to peak response to a dim flash was 50-100 ms and there was a characteristic undershoot during recovery.     

Novel form of growth cone motility involving site-directed actin filament assembly.

Regulation of cytoskeletal structure and motility by extracellular signals is essential for all directed forms of cell movement and underlies the developmental process of axonal guidance in neuronal growth cones. Interaction with polycationic microbeads can trigger morphogenic changes in neurons and muscle cells normally associated with formation of pre- and postsynaptic specializations. Furthermore, when various types of microscopic particles are applied to the lamellar surface of a neuronal growth cone or motile cell they often exhibit retrograde movement at rates of 1-6 microns min-1 (refs 3-6). There is strong evidence that this form of particle movement results from translocation of membrane proteins associated with cortical F-actin networks, not from bulk retrograde lipid flow and may be a mechanism behind processes such as cell locomotion, growth cone migration and capping of cell-surface antigens. Here we report a new form of motility stimulated by polycationic bead interactions with the growth-cone membrane surface. Bead binding rapidly induces intracellular actin filament assembly, coincident with a production of force sufficient to drive bead movements. These extracellular bead movements resemble intracellular movements of bacterial parasites known to redirect host cell F-actin assembly for propulsion. Our results suggest that site-directed actin filament assembly may be a widespread cellular mechanism for generating force at membrane-cytoskeletal interfaces.     

Role of visual pigment properties in rod and cone phototransduction

Retinal rods and cones share a phototransduction pathway involving cyclic GMP. Cones are typically 100 times less photosensitive than rods and their response kinetics are several times faster, but the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. Almost all proteins involved in phototransduction have distinct rod and cone variants. Differences in properties between rod and cone pigments have been described, such as a 10-fold shorter lifetime of the meta-II state (active conformation) of cone pigment and its higher rate of spontaneous isomerization, but their contributions to the functional differences between rods and cones remain speculative. We have addressed this question by expressing human or salamander red cone pigment in Xenopus rods, and human rod pigment in Xenopus cones. Here we show that rod and cone pigments when present in the same cell produce light responses with identical amplification and kinetics, thereby ruling out any difference in their signalling properties. However, red cone pigment isomerizes spontaneously 10,000 times more frequently than rod pigment. This high spontaneous activity adapts the native cones even in darkness, making them less sensitive and kinetically faster than rods. Nevertheless, additional factors are probably involved in these differences.     

杉木传粉生物学的观察

观察了杉木雌、雄球花在树冠上的分布规律及开花，传粉的全过程，发现雌球花主要分布在树冠中，上部，即Ⅰ～Ⅳ年龄段，约占总量的７７％，雄球花的分布趋势与雌球相反，在相应部位仅为总量的４０％，雌球花开放期约７ｄ，可授期３－５ｄ。雄球花的撒粉期与雌球花的可授期是吻合的，传粉过程中对花粉撒落的定量测定表明：睛朗、干燥的天气伴随一定的风力是花粉传播的必要条件，对授粉后幼果的发育及胚珠所接受花粉的多寡与种子发育的     

杉木球果麦蛾生物生态学特性的研究

杉木球果麦蛾是危害杉木球果和种子的一个新害虫，在中国危害杉木，广泛分布于中国南部。该虫以幼虫钻蛀球果的苞鳞、果轴及种子，使球果变色、干枯及畸形。本文报道了该虫的生物生态学特性。     

Harmonic-hopping in Wallacea's bats

Evolutionary divergence between species is facilitated by ecological shifts, and divergence is particularly rapid when such shifts also promote assortative mating. Horseshoe bats are a diverse Old World family (Rhinolophidae) that have undergone a rapid radiation in the past 5 million years. These insectivorous bats use a predominantly pure-tone echolocation call matched to an auditory fovea (an over-representation of the pure-tone frequency in the cochlea and inferior colliculus) to detect the minute changes in echo amplitude and frequency generated when an insect flutters its wings. The emitted signal is the accentuated second harmonic of a series in which the fundamental and remaining harmonics are filtered out. Here we show that three distinct, sympatric size morphs of the large-eared horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus philippinensis) echolocate at different harmonics of the same fundamental frequency. These morphs have undergone recent genetic divergence, and this process has occurred in parallel more than once. We suggest that switching harmonics creates a discontinuity in the bats' perception of available prey that can initiate disruptive selection. Moreover, because call frequency in horseshoe bats has a dual function in resource acquisition and communication, ecological selection on frequency might lead to assortative mating and ultimately reproductive isolation and speciation, regardless of external barriers to gene flow.     

Cyclic GMP increases photocurrent and light sensitivity of retinal cones

Like retinal rods, cone photoreceptors contain cyclic GMP and light-activated phosphodiesterase. The cGMP phosphodiesterase cascade is thought to mediate phototransduction in rods. Biochemical assays of nucleotide content in cone-dominant retinas, however, have failed to demonstrate light-induced changes in cGMP. Changes in cyclic AMP following light exposure have been reported, leading to the suggestion that in cone phototransduction cAMP assumes a role analogous to that played by cGMP in rods. Cyclic GMP introduced from tight-seal pipettes into isolated cones of the larval tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum, rapidly increases light-modulated membrane current more than 10-fold. In cones, as in rods, cGMP also causes an approximately 10-fold increase in photocurrent duration and a 5- to 10-fold increase in light-sensitivity. Cyclic AMP has no effect on cone photocurrents under the same conditions. Because cGMP has similar effects on photocurrent magnitude and kinetics in both rods and cones, we conclude that cGMP plays corresponding roles in transduction in both vertebrate photoreceptor classes.     

马尾松二代育种群体生长和开花结实性状

对马尾松二代核心育种群体内亲本无性系的树高、胸径等生长性状及开花量、结实量等生殖性状进行了全面调查和分析。51个马尾松二代亲本无性系7年生时平均树高、胸径和材积分别为5.53 m、9.05 cm和0.021 m3,各生长性状在无性系之间的差异显著,各性状的无性系重复力较高。对进入开花结实盛期的39个无性系调查发现,开花量、结实量等生殖性状在不同亲本无性系之间的变异程度比生长性状的高。基于主要生长性状、生殖性状,将39个亲本无性系聚在4个类群内,不同类群存在显著性状差异:类群1生长性状总体较优,雌球花、球果量也较多;类群2生长性状总体较差,开花、球果量也较少;类群3生长性状较优、雄球花数量较多,但雌球花、球果数量较少;类群4生长性状总体较差,但雌球花、球果数多。无性系的雌球花、球果数与生长量呈弱度负相关,因而在选择杂交亲本或种子园建园亲本时,有必要在开展亲本配合力测评的同时,开展亲本的多性状选择,选出28个生长、生殖性状较为均衡(生长量、开花结实量均在中等或中等以上)的无性系,其单株雄球花数、球果数和单株材积分别比参试群体均值高18.2%,8.0%和9.6%。可将这些无性系作为候选优良亲本,结合亲本配合力的测评,从中选择优良的杂交亲本及二代种子园的建园材料。     

悬铃木化学调控脱果的研究

为了控制悬铃木果毛对城市环境的污染，在悬铃木初花期，用化学药剂处理之后，嫩枝上的球果鲜重减轻，含水量下降，电解质外渗增加，球果活力降低，致使球果皱缩，萎蔫，干枯而脱落，脱果率达９５％以上。研究表明，这与球果内过氧化氢酶活性下降，Ｈ２Ｏ２大量积累，破坏细胞质膜有关。     

关于锥内正映射不动点指标的一个猜想

对Ｅ．Ｎ．Ｄａｎｃｅｒ提出的一个关于锥内正映射不动点指标的猜想进行了讨论。首先利用泛函对锥的几何性质进行了刻画，然后在锥的内点非空的条件下，利用算子扰动方法证明了这一猜想，最后举例说明其应用。