Deuterostome phylogeny reveals monophyletic chordates and the new phylum Xenoturbellida

Deuterostomes comprise vertebrates, the related invertebrate chordates (tunicates and cephalochordates) and three other invertebrate taxa: hemichordates, echinoderms and Xenoturbella. The relationships between invertebrate and vertebrate deuterostomes are clearly important for understanding our own distant origins. Recent phylogenetic studies of chordate classes and a sea urchin have indicated that urochordates might be the closest invertebrate sister group of vertebrates, rather than cephalochordates, as traditionally believed. More remarkable is the suggestion that cephalochordates are closer to echinoderms than to vertebrates and urochordates, meaning that chordates are paraphyletic. To study the relationships among all deuterostome groups, we have assembled an alignment of more than 35,000 homologous amino acids, including new data from a hemichordate, starfish and Xenoturbella. We have also sequenced the mitochondrial genome of Xenoturbella. We support the clades Olfactores (urochordates and vertebrates) and Ambulacraria (hemichordates and echinoderms). Analyses using our new data, however, do not support a cephalochordate and echinoderm grouping and we conclude that chordates are monophyletic. Finally, nuclear and mitochondrial data place Xenoturbella as the sister group of the two ambulacrarian phyla. As such, Xenoturbella is shown to be an independent phylum, Xenoturbellida, bringing the number of living deuterostome phyla to four.     

Acoelomorph flatworms are deuterostomes related to Xenoturbella

Xenoturbellida and Acoelomorpha are marine worms with contentious ancestry. Both were originally associated with the flatworms (Platyhelminthes), but molecular data have revised their phylogenetic positions, generally linking Xenoturbellida to the deuterostomes and positioning the Acoelomorpha as the most basally branching bilaterian group(s). Recent phylogenomic data suggested that Xenoturbellida and Acoelomorpha are sister taxa and together constitute an early branch of Bilateria. Here we assemble three independent data sets-mitochondrial genes, a phylogenomic data set of 38,330 amino-acid positions and new microRNA (miRNA) complements-and show that the position of Acoelomorpha is strongly affected by a long-branch attraction (LBA) artefact. When we minimize LBA we find consistent support for a position of both acoelomorphs and Xenoturbella within the deuterostomes. The most likely phylogeny links Xenoturbella and Acoelomorpha in a clade we call Xenacoelomorpha. The Xenacoelomorpha is the sister group of the Ambulacraria (hemichordates and echinoderms). We show that analyses of miRNA complements have been affected by character loss in the acoels and that both groups possess one miRNA and the gene Rsb66 otherwise specific to deuterostomes. In addition, Xenoturbella shares one miRNA with the ambulacrarians, and two with the acoels. This phylogeny makes sense of the shared characteristics of Xenoturbellida and Acoelomorpha, such as ciliary ultrastructure and diffuse nervous system, and implies the loss of various deuterostome characters in the Xenacoelomorpha including coelomic cavities, through gut and gill slits.     

Yunnanozoon是半索动物的远祖

对澄江化石库中Ｙｕｎｎａｎｏｚｏｏｎ（云南虫）重新研究表明，其身体由吻、邻和躯干三部发构成；躯干前段为具有成对鳃孔的咽腔，后段为消化区这种独特的身体造型与现生肠鳃类半索动物几无二致，从鸸 有明这个早寒武世动物是地球上半索动物门中书已知最古老的祖先类型。     

Paired gill slits in a fossil with a calcite skeleton

The chordates, hemichordates (such as acorn worms) and echinoderms (such as starfish) comprise the group Deuterostomia, well established as monophyletic. Among extant deuterostomes, a skeleton in which each plate has the crystallographic structure of a single crystal of calcite is characteristic of echinoderms and is always associated with radial symmetry and never with gill slits. Among fossils, however, such a skeleton sometimes occurs without radial symmetry. This is true of Jaekelocarpus oklahomensis, from the Upper Carboniferous of Oklahoma, USA, which, being externally almost bilaterally symmetrical, is traditionally placed in the group Mitrata (Ordovician to Carboniferous periods, 530-280 million years ago), by contrast with the bizarrely asymmetrical Cornuta (Cambrian to Ordovician periods, 540 to 440 million years ago). Using computer X-ray microtomography, we describe the anatomy of Jaekelocarpus in greater detail than formerly possible, reveal evidence of paired gill slits internally and interpret its functional anatomy. On this basis we suggest its phylogenetic position within the deuterostomes.     

Ancestral echinoderms from the Chengjiang deposits of China

Deuterostomes are a remarkably diverse super-phylum, including not only the chordates (to which we belong) but groups as disparate as the echinoderms and the hemichordates. The phylogeny of deuterostomes is now achieving some degree of stability, especially on account of new molecular data, but this leaves as conjectural the appearance of extinct intermediate forms that would throw light on the sequence of evolutionary events leading to the extant groups. Such data can be supplied from the fossil record, notably those deposits with exceptional soft-part preservation. Excavations near Kunming in southwestern China have revealed a variety of remarkable early deuterostomes, including the vetulicolians and yunnanozoans. Here we describe a new group, the vetulocystids. They appear to have similarities not only to the vetulicolians but also to the homalozoans, a bizarre group of primitive echinoderms whose phylogenetic position has been highly controversial.     

Reproduction: widespread cloning in echinoderm larvae

Asexual reproduction by free-living invertebrate larvae is a rare and enigmatic phenomenon and, although it is known to occur in sea stars and brittle stars, it has not been detected in other echinoderms despite more than a century of intensive study. Here we describe spontaneous larval cloning in three species from two more echinoderm classes: a sea cucumber (Holothuroidea), a sand dollar and a sea urchin (Echinoidea). Larval cloning may therefore be an ancient ability of echinoderms and possibly of deutero-stomes - the group that includes echinoderms, acorn worms, sea squirts and vertebrates.     

Larval stages of a living sea lily (stalked crinoid echinoderm)

The embryos and larvae of stalked crinoids, which are considered the most basal group of extant echinoderms, have not previously been described. In contrast, much is known about the development of the more accessible stalkless crinoids (feather stars), which are phylogenetically derived from stalked forms. Here we describe the development of a sea lily from fertilization to larval settlement. There are two successive larval stages: the first is a non-feeding auricularia stage with partly longitudinal ciliary bands (similar to the auricularia and bipinnaria larvae of holothurian and asteroid echinoderms, respectively); the second is a doliolaria larva with circumferential ciliary bands (similar to the earliest larval stage of stalkless crinoids). We suggest that a dipleurula-type larva is primitive for echinoderms and is the starting point for the evolution of additional larval forms within the phylum. From a wider evolutionary viewpoint, the demonstration that the most basal kind of echinoderm larva is a dipleurula is consistent with Garstang's auricularia theory for the phylogenetic origin of the chordate neural tube.     

大鼠生长及衰老过程中学习记忆能力与皮层神经丝蛋白表达关系

在脑的生长与衰老过程中 ,学习记忆能力也随之变化。这种变化的物质基础研究是当前神经科学研究热点之一 ,其结果对促进儿童智能发育和延缓老年智力衰退的研究有重要价值。本项研究对不同年龄大鼠的空间学习记忆能力和大鼠脑皮层主要骨架蛋白———神经丝蛋白的表达程度进行了定量分析探索其关系。选择的动物为SD雄性大鼠 ,分为 2 2日龄、1月龄、5月龄、10月龄和 2 4月龄组 ;学习记忆能力测定采用通道式水迷宫。采用免疫组化染色和定量图象分析的方法对大鼠脑顶额区神经丝蛋白进行定量测定。结果表明 ,幼鼠 (2 2日龄、1月龄 )及老年鼠 (2 4…     

手工装配作业下的一种调度策略与控制方法

针对某企业手工装配作业环境,认为生产控制系统的调度策略必须建立在人机互助的基础之上。在具体操作时,提出用Ｐｅｔｒｉ网规范装配工艺流程,基于关键工序点进行控制,即：１）按周期计划安排生产;２）按日进度计划用Ｐｅｔｒｉ网预测缺件;３）基于关键工序点的在制品控制;４）定期盈亏检查,从而达到对装配产品信息流的动态控制和科学管理。这些策略与方法来源于企业,适合中国国情,因而具有实用性和推广价值。     

A paleontological perspective of vertebrate origin

The Early Cambrian Haikouichthys and Haikouella have been claimed to be related to contribute in an important way to our understanding of vertebrate origin,but there have been heated debates about how exactly they are to be interpreted. New discoveries of numerous specimens of Haikouichthys not only confirm the identity of previously described structures such as the dorsal and the ventral fins, and chevron-shaped myomeres, but also reveal many new important characteristics, including sensory organs of the head (e.g. large eyes), and a prominent notochord with differentiated vertebral elements. This “first fish” appears, however, to retain primitive reproductive features of acraniates, suggesting that it is a stem-group craniates. A new order (Myllokunmingiida) and a new family (Myllokunmingiidae) are erected, and a new species, Zhongjianichthys rostratus (gen. et sp. nov.), is described herein. Over 1400 newly-discovered specimens of Haikouella provide a wealth of anatomical information on this organism. It differs from chordates in many organs and organ systems, including the skin, muscles, respiratory, circulatory and nervous systems.In contrast, its body-design resembles that of vetulicolians,and the presence of a “transitional” nervous system with both dorsal and ventral nerve cords suggests an affinity with living hemichordates. On the basis of these and other recent findings of fossil deuterostomes, a five-step hypothesis for vertebrate origin is proposed, intended to bridge the long-standing gap between protostomes and vertebrates. Four of the five steps accord with established ideas current in modern evolutionary zoology. Evidence for the first step is obtainable only from fossils, and specifically from fossils found from South China, hence the crucial importance of S. China sites for our understanding of early vertebrate origins and evolution. Accordingly, South China is suggested as the oldest-known birthplace of the whole vertebrates.     

The origin of the internal nostril of tetrapods

The choana, a unique 'internal nostril' opening from the nasal sac into the roof of the mouth, is a key part of the tetrapod (land vertebrate) respiratory system. It was the first component of the tetrapod body plan to evolve, well before the origin of limbs, and is therefore crucial to our understanding of the beginning of the fish-tetrapod transition. However, there is no consensus on the origin of the choana despite decades of heated debate; some have claimed that it represents a palatally displaced external nostril, but others have argued that this is implausible because it implies breaking and rejoining the maxillary-premaxillary dental arcade and the maxillary branch of nerve V. The fossil record has not resolved the dispute, because the choana is fully developed in known tetrapod stem-group members. Here we present new material of Kenichthys, a 395-million-year-old fossil fish from China, that provides direct evidence for the origin of the choana and establishes its homology: it is indeed a displaced posterior external nostril that, during a brief transitional stage illustrated by Kenichthys, separated the maxilla from the premaxilla.     

广东北江南方拟 个体生殖力初步研究

摘要: 于2008年4月和2009年5月,在北江上游采集成熟度为Ⅳ期的南方拟 雌性样本52尾,用质量法计数个体绝对生殖力(F),计算出体长相对生殖力(FL)、体质量相对生殖力(FW),并用5种数学模型及多元逐步回归方程拟合了个体生殖力与生物学指标的关系．结果表明:南方拟 样本的个体绝对生殖力在1 636～8 579粒之间,平均为5 358粒;体长相对生殖力（FL)在182～547粒/cm,平均为402粒/cm;体质量相对生殖力(FW )在123～235粒/g之间,平均为176粒/g ．个体绝对生殖力与全长、体长、 、鲜质量、净鲜质量呈幂指数关系呈幂函数相关,与卵巢质量、成熟系数、丰满度、年龄呈抛物线相关．多元逐步回归分析表明,个体绝对生殖力与净鲜质量为密切相关,相关式为:F =1 175.472+135.557Wn．     

'Lophenteropneust' hypothesis refuted by collection and photos of new deep-sea hemichordates

The deep ocean is home to a group of broad-collared hemichordates--the so-called 'lophenteropneusts'--that have been photographed gliding on the sea floor but have not previously been collected. It has been claimed that these worms have collar tentacles and blend morphological features of the two main hemichordate body plans, namely the tentacle-less enteropneusts and the tentacle-bearing pterobranchs. Consequently, lophenteropneusts have been invoked as missing links to suggest that the former evolved into the latter. The most significant aspect of the lophenteropneust hypothesis is its prediction that the fundamental body plan within a basal phylum of deuterostomes was enteropneust-like. The assumption of such an ancestral state influences ideas about the evolution of the vertebrates from the invertebrates. Here we report on the first collected specimen of a broad-collared, deep-sea enteropneust and describe it as a new family, genus and species. The collar, although disproportionately broad, lacks tentacles. In addition, we find no evidence of tentacles in the available deep-sea photographs (published and unpublished) of broad-collared enteropneusts, including those formerly designated as lophenteropneusts. Thus, the lophenteropneust hypothesis was based on misinterpretation of deep-sea photographs of low quality and should no longer be used to support the idea that the enteropneust body plan is basal within the phylum Hemichordata.     

Acoel development indicates the independent evolution of the bilaterian mouth and anus

Most bilaterian animals possess a through gut with a separate mouth and anus. It is commonly believed that during the transition from radial to bilateral symmetry, both openings evolved simultaneously by the lateral closure of a slit-like blastopore. Molecular phylogenies however, place the acoel flatworms, which have only one opening to their digestive system, as the sister group to all remaining Bilateria. To address how this single body opening is related to the mouth and anus of the protostomes and deuterostomes, we studied the expression of genes involved in bilaterian foregut and hindgut patterning during the development of the acoel Convolutriloba longifissura. Here we show that the genes brachyury and goosecoid are expressed in association with the acoel mouth, suggesting that this single opening is homologous to the mouth of other bilaterians. In addition, we find that the genes caudal, orthopedia and brachyury-which are expressed in various bilaterian hindguts-are expressed in a small region at the posterior end of the animal, separated from the anterior oral brachyury-expressing region by a dorsal domain of ectodermal bmp2/4 expression. These results contradict the hypothesis that the bilaterian mouth and anus evolved simultaneously from a common blastoporal opening, and suggest that a through gut might have evolved independently in different animal lineages.     

黑尾近红鲌个体繁殖力的研究

研究了长江上游泸州地区64尾黑尾近红鱼白的个体繁殖力变动及其与雌亲体多项形态学指标的关系.结果表明黑尾近红鱼白的个体绝对繁殖力(F)平均为35726.81(4541～114356)粒;个体相对繁殖力(F/l)平均为1604.03(273.55～4462.61)粒/cm,F/mo平均为277.28(42.76～601.42)粒/g.个体绝对繁殖力(F)、个体相对繁殖力(F/l)与体长(l)、净体质量(mo)、年龄(t)、成熟系数(M)均呈显著线性正相关;相对繁殖力(F/mo)除与成熟系数(M)成直线正相关外,与其它形态指标相关不显著;个体繁殖力随丰满度(K)变化不明显.     

基于无人值守环境远程监控系统的设计与研究

在我国现有硬件基础设施基本具备的条件下,利用传统的公众电话交换网资源,提出了一套对无人值守环境实施远程监控的方案,此方案经济、可靠,具有很强的实用价值.     

校园信息网的设计和调节收费问题模型

对于校园信息网的建立问题,本文给出了和用户数相对应的信息端口数的合理数目,并通过运用排队理论,分析了几种特定情况下可能出现的情况,最终给出了一种较为合理的分段计时收取线路调节费的方案以控制上网时间,达到有效地安排网络资源的目的.     

硝酸酯类药物的耐药性及影响因素与对策

使用硝酸酯类药物常可产生耐药性，耐药性的产生与长期使用、加大药物的剂量有关。其机制可能是，细胞巯基耗竭，使鸟苷酸环化酶活化降低，致血管平滑肌松驰作用减弱。此外，神经体液系统被激活，血容量增加，超氧阴离子增加，也起着一定的作用。防治措施主要采用间歇疗法，补充疏基供体（如乙酰半胱氨酸、蛋氨酸），抗氧化剂的使用。     

Ancient deuterostome origins of vertebrate brain signalling centres

Neuroectodermal signalling centres induce and pattern many novel vertebrate brain structures but are absent, or divergent, in invertebrate chordates. This has led to the idea that signalling-centre genetic programs were first assembled in stem vertebrates and potentially drove morphological innovations of the brain. However, this scenario presumes that extant cephalochordates accurately represent ancestral chordate characters, which has not been tested using close chordate outgroups. Here we report that genetic programs homologous to three vertebrate signalling centres-the anterior neural ridge, zona limitans intrathalamica and isthmic organizer-are present in the hemichordate Saccoglossus kowalevskii. Fgf8/17/18 (a single gene homologous to vertebrate Fgf8, Fgf17 and Fgf18), sfrp1/5, hh and wnt1 are expressed in vertebrate-like arrangements in hemichordate ectoderm, and homologous genetic mechanisms regulate ectodermal patterning in both animals. We propose that these genetic programs were components of an unexpectedly complex, ancient genetic regulatory scaffold for deuterostome body patterning that degenerated in amphioxus and ascidians, but was retained to pattern divergent structures in hemichordates and vertebrates.     

基于.NET技术的教学计划运行管理系统的设计

本系统使用Asp.net技术实现了教务处管理员审核教学计划,教研室管理员上传教学计划,教师查询课程并可执行成绩录入,学生可以网上选课、成绩、课表查询、教学质量评估等功能。基本实现了教学计划的管理与制定、选课功能、学生在线信息查询等功能。