Speciation by host switch in brood parasitic indigobirds

A growing body of empirical and theoretical work supports the plausibility of sympatric speciation, but there remain few examples in which all the essential components of the process are well understood. The African indigobirds Vidua spp. are host-specific brood parasites. Indigobird nestlings are reared along with host young, and mimic the mouth markings of their respective hosts. As adults, male indigobirds mimic host song, whereas females use these songs to choose both their mates and the nests they parasitize. These behavioural mechanisms promote the cohesion of indigobird populations associated with a given host species, and provide a mechanism for reproductive isolation after a new host is colonized. Here we show that all indigobird species are similar genetically, but are significantly differentiated in both mitochondrial haplotype and nuclear allele frequencies. These data support a model of recent sympatric speciation. In contrast to the cuckoo Cuculus canorus, in which only female lineages are faithful to specific hosts, host switches have led to speciation in indigobirds because both males and females imprint on their hosts.     

An obligate brood parasite trapped in the intraspecific arms race of its hosts

Reciprocal selection pressures often lead to close and adaptive matching of traits in coevolved species. A failure of one species to match the evolutionary trajectories of another is often attributed to evolutionary lags or to differing selection pressures across a geographic mosaic. Here we show that mismatches in adaptation of interacting species--an obligate brood parasitic duck and each of its two main hosts--are best explained by the evolutionary dynamics within the host species. Rejection of the brood parasite's eggs was common by both hosts, despite a lack of detectable cost of parasitism to the hosts. Egg rejection markedly reduced parasite fitness, but egg mimicry experiments revealed no phenotypic natural selection for more mimetic parasitic eggs. These paradoxical results were resolved by the discovery of intraspecific brood parasitism and conspecific egg rejection within the hosts themselves. The apparent arms race between species seems instead to be an incidental by-product of within-species conflict, with little recourse for evolutionary response by the parasite.     

A brood parasitic catfish of mouthbrooding cichlid fishes in Lake Tanganyika

Brood parasitism, where a brood of the parasitic species is fostered by the parents of another species, is well known among birds. In most cases, such offspring show a complete reliance upon their host parents for food, protection and warmth until their independence. In other vertebrate groups, however, such total dependence upon a host species is unknown. I report here the first example of true brood parasitic behaviour discovered among fishes. In Lake Tanganyika, an endemic mochokid catfish, Synodontis multipunctatus Boulenger, is a brood parasite of mouthbrooding fishes of the family Cichlidae. The eggs of the catfish are incubated in the mouths of any of several host species together with the host's eggs, but hatch earlier. Following absorption of their yolk sacs, the catfish fry feed upon the fry of the host while still in its mouth. Thus the early stages of development of this catfish not only depend upon their hosts for food and protection, but exploit almost their entire parental investment.     

松树体内寄生线虫种类及其致病性

松树是我国重要的造林先锋树种与景观绿化树种,然而,近年来在许多地方发现有不明原因、不同症状的枯萎松树,不同种类的寄生线虫在枯萎松树中被发现.笔者对松树体内的寄生线虫以及这些寄生线虫的致病性进行了综述.到目前为止,在我国松树上已经发现寄生线虫有11属42种以及11个未定种.除松材线虫外,一些线虫如拟松材线虫、Bursaphelenchus sexdentati等也能够引起某些松树的死亡.     

针刺对青少年运动员长跑中血糖的调节作用

采用平衡重复测试法,对16名男子耐力长跑运动员在间隔期不少于7d内,在测定前一个月对实验组的6名运动员实行每晚一次和实验前一次双侧“三阴交”、“关元”、“安眠”、“内关”、“三里”针刺,而对照组的10名运动员不做任何处理,2h后,受试者在运动场400m跑道上进行21km的长跑能力测试．前5km中,受试者以中等速度跑步。探讨了针刺长跑运动员相关穴位对长跑能力的影响,要求16名运动员同时跑完,而其后的16km则可随意选择速度以最短时间完成．结果显示：与对照组相比。所有实验组运动员跑步时间明显缩短．显示跑步全程中,实验组运动员的血糖水平较高。血清胰岛素的水平较低．对照组运动员两小时的血糖、血清胰岛素在运动过程中与实验组相比均无显著差异．表明在运动前对长跑运动员实施针灸相关穴位能更有效地提高长跑运动的能力．     

一株新型寄生溶藻细菌的分离及初步鉴定

从宁波象山港分离得到1株具有溶藻能力的细菌,命名为XD-G.该菌株对中肋骨条藻(Skeletonema costatum 1115)的溶藻效果较好,感染1 d后,藻细胞基本裂解,叶绿素a减少达66.5%.在透射电子显微镜下观察菌株XD-G感染9 h后的中肋骨条藻切片,发现藻细胞内有大量细菌出现,由此推测,菌株XD-G是1种寄生性溶藻细菌.菌株XD-G不但能裂解中肋骨条藻及热带骨条藻(Skeletonema troicum),而且对赤潮异弯藻(Heterosigma akashi wo)也有一定的溶藻效果.     

Mechanical twisting of a guest by a photoresponsive host

Molecular analogues of a variety of mechanical devices such as shuttles, brakes, unidirectional rotors and tweezers have been created. But these 'molecular machines' have not yet been used to mechanically manipulate a second molecule in a controlled and reversible manner. Here we show that light-induced scissor-like conformational changes of one molecule can give rise to mechanical twisting of a non-covalently bound guest molecule. To realize this coupling of molecular motions, we use a previously designed system: a ferrocene moiety with an azobenzene strap, each end of which is attached to one of the two cyclopentadienyl rings of the ferrocene unit, acts as a pivot so that photoisomerization of the strap rotates the ferrocene rings relative to each other and thereby also changes the relative position of two 'pedal' moieties attached to the ferrocene rings. We translate this effect into intermolecular coupling of motion by endowing the pedals with binding sites, which allow the host system to form a stable complex with a bidentate rotor molecule. Using circular dichroism spectroscopy, we show that the photoinduced conformational changes of the host are indeed transmitted and induce mechanical twisting of the rotor molecule. This design concept, which significantly extends the successful coupling of motion beyond the intramolecular level seen in synthetic allosteric receptors, might allow for the remote control of molecular events in larger interlocked molecular systems.     

Formation of massive black holes through runaway collisions in dense young star clusters

A luminous X-ray source is associated with MGG 11--a cluster of young stars approximately 200 pc from the centre of the starburst galaxy M 82 (refs 1, 2). The properties of this source are best explained by invoking a black hole with a mass of at least 350 solar masses (350 M(o)), which is intermediate between stellar-mass and supermassive black holes. A nearby but somewhat more massive cluster (MGG 9) shows no evidence of such an intermediate-mass black hole, raising the issue of just what physical characteristics of the clusters can account for this difference. Here we report numerical simulations of the evolution and motion of stars within the clusters, where stars are allowed to merge with each other. We find that for MGG 11 dynamical friction leads to the massive stars sinking rapidly to the centre of the cluster, where they participate in a runaway collision. This produces a star of 800-3,000 M(o) which ultimately collapses to a black hole of intermediate mass. No such runaway occurs in the cluster MGG 9, because the larger cluster radius leads to a mass segregation timescale a factor of five longer than for MGG 11.     

Discovery of a bright quasar without a massive host galaxy

A quasar is thought to be powered by the infall of matter onto a supermassive black hole at the centre of a massive galaxy. Because the optical luminosity of quasars exceeds that of their host galaxy, disentangling the two components can be difficult. This led in the 1990s to the controversial claim of the discovery of 'naked' quasars. Since then, the connection between quasars and galaxies has been well established. Here we report the discovery of a quasar lying at the edge of a gas cloud, whose size is comparable to that of a small galaxy, but whose spectrum shows no evidence for stars. The gas in the cloud is excited by the quasar itself. If a host galaxy is present, it is at least six times fainter than would normally be expected for such a bright quasar. The quasar is interacting dynamically with a neighbouring galaxy, whose gas might be feeding the black hole.     

双臂质量不同音叉振动周期与频率的研究

在分析音叉受迫振动的基础上,利用周期测定仪测定周期快捷方便的优点,将负载分别加在音叉某一臂上的不同位置,研究音叉的振动周期和频率与所加负载在音叉不同位置的关系,得到了随着位置的不同,音叉的频率与周期为非线性变化。当在音叉某一位置不变而逐渐增加负载质量,发现周期与质量为线性关系,并为正相关,而频率与质量为线性关系,但为负相关,而且正相关与负相关的线性相关系数很高。其结果揭示了振动周期和频率与音叉双臂质量不同时的关系。     

机内进程间通信的性能测试和评价

针对管道、共享内存和UNIX域套接字通信方法，讨论了实现机内进程通信的主要方法和原理。在PC／Linux环境下，采用这些方法，用C语言实现了基于Linux操作系统的机内通信程序，并对机内进程间通信性能进行了测试。性能测试结果表明，对于不同长度的报文，使用不同的通信方法，通信性能不同。