Responses of ferns to red light are mediated by an unconventional photoreceptor

Efficient photosynthesis is essential for plant survival. To optimize photosynthesis, plants have developed several photoresponses. Stems bend towards a light source (phototropism), chloroplasts move to a place of appropriate light intensity (chloroplast photorelocation) and stomata open to absorb carbon dioxide. These responses are mediated by the blue-light receptors phototropin 1 (phot1) and phototropin 2 (phot2) in Arabidopsis (refs 1-5). In some ferns, phototropism and chloroplast photorelocation are controlled by red light as well as blue light. However, until now, the photoreceptor mediating these red-light responses has not been identified. The fern Adiantum capillus-veneris has an unconventional photoreceptor, phytochrome 3 (phy3), which is a chimaera of the red/far-red light receptor phytochrome and phototropin. We identify here a function of phy3 for red-light-induced phototropism and for red-light-induced chloroplast photorelocation, by using mutational analysis and complementation. Because phy3 greatly enhances the sensitivity to white light in orienting leaves and chloroplasts, and PHY3 homologues exist among various fern species, this chimaeric photoreceptor may have had a central role in the divergence and proliferation of fern species under low-light canopy conditions.     

一年生杂草正规块状分布的生态场模拟分析

大田杂草多呈块状或斑块分布。精准农业是现代农业的发展方向,它要求对作物-杂草生态系统进行定量描述并按照杂草斑块的性质(大小、密度等)进行定量的控制。本文对杂草正规型斑块进行了定量描述,即呈正规分布的杂草斑块可用同一的模型来描述,其形状在细胞空间中可以从条形变化到圆形。并将个体生态场概念(Wu,etal.,1985)扩展到群体(种群)。应用作者发展的细胞自动机(Wangetal.,2003)方法对杂草正规型斑块进行了模拟,结果表明:在一定范围内,(1)杂草的生态场随(圆形)斑块的增大而增大;(2)杂草的生态场随正规分布杂草斑块的形状变化而变化;(3)正规分布的圆形斑块其生态场随密度增加而增加;(4)通过模拟证实密度较高的杂草斑块,或者较大的杂草斑块需要更大的控制力(除草剂);(5)通过模拟证实杂草斑块的形状影响控制力,因此杂草的精确控制应该考虑杂草的形状。     

Two phorbol ester receptor affinities in partially transformed human urothelial cells and decrease of receptor binding in desensitized cells

The presence of specific binding sites for phorbol esters was studied in a transformed but non-tumorigenic human urothelial cell line HCV-29 by assay of specific binding of³H-phorbol-12,13-dibutyrate (³H-PDBu) to intact living cells.³H-PDBu bound specifically to HCV-29 cells in a saturable and competitive manner. Scatchard plot analysis of specific binding yielded a curved plot consistent with two binding sites with K_d of 11 nM and 102 nM, respectively. At saturation the corresponding PDBu binding capacities (B_max) were 8.8 pmol/10⁶ cells (5.2×10⁶ molecules bound per cell) and 2.8 pmol/10⁶ cells (1.7×10⁶ molecules bound per cell).³H-PDBu binding was displaced by biologically active phorbol ester tumor promoters such as 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) and mezerein,but not by tumor promoters such as L-tryptophan, anthranilic acid and sodium saccharin. In cells desensitized by pretreatment with 1 g/ml (2M) TPA or PDBu for 24 h the level of binding was reduced to 28% of the level in non-exposed cells. The ability of desensitized cells to bind³H-PDBu was gradually restored within 5–6 days. At the same time the cells became sensitive to the morphological alteration induced by PDBu. This suggests that desensitization of HCV-29 cells is due to a decreased receptor-ligand binding capacity probably associated with down regulation of the phorbol ester receptors.     

High velocity dispersion in a rare grand-design spiral galaxy at redshift z = 2.18

Although grand-design spiral galaxies are relatively common in the local Universe, only one has been spectroscopically confirmed to lie at redshift z?>?2 (HDFX 28; z = 2.011); and it may prove to be a major merger that simply resembles a spiral in projection. The rarity of spirals has been explained as a result of disks being dynamically 'hot' at z?>?2 (refs 2-5), which may instead favour the formation of commonly observed clumpy structures. Alternatively, current instrumentation may simply not be sensitive enough to detect spiral structures comparable to those in the modern Universe. At z?相似文献   

Pyruvate kinase inhibited by L-cysteine as a marker of tumorigenic human urothelial cell lines

It was found that a decrease in electrophoretic mobility of pyruvate kinase (PK) isoenzyme, and an increase of the sensitivity of this enzyme to L-cysteine, were markers of immortalization and tumorigenic properties, respectively, in human urothelial cell lines characterized by different grades of transformation (TGr) in vitro.     

异型Ti电极直接乙醇燃料电池的制备与性能

采用Pt/C作为阴极催化剂,PtRu/C作为阳极催化剂,Nafion115和Nafion液涂覆膜作为质子交换膜,管状Ti丝(管)和平板式Ti网作为制备异型直接乙醇燃料电池的阴极和阳极的载体材料,制备管状阴极和平板阳极.观察了异型阴极和阳极的组织和结构,并通过单电池试验,研究了异型电极对直接乙醇燃料电池(DEFCs)性能的影响.结果表明,管状阴极涂覆的Nafion膜均匀一致,阳极催化剂与Ti网的结合能力较强,较高的O2流量有利于提高DEFCs单电池的性能,当膜载量达到25.0 mg/cm2以上时,会提高DEFCs单电池阻抗,当膜载量小于20.2 mg/cm2时,电池的使用寿命大大降低.     

Power requirement of the geodynamo from ohmic losses in numerical and laboratory dynamos

In the Earth's fluid outer core, a dynamo process converts thermal and gravitational energy into magnetic energy. The power needed to sustain the geomagnetic field is set by the ohmic losses (dissipation due to electrical resistance). Recent estimates of ohmic losses cover a wide range, from 0.1 to 3.5 TW, or roughly 0.3-10% of the Earth's surface heat flow. The energy requirement of the dynamo puts constraints on the thermal budget and evolution of the core through Earth's history. Here we use a set of numerical dynamo models to derive scaling relations between the core's characteristic dissipation time and the core's magnetic and hydrodynamic Reynolds numbers--dimensionless numbers that measure the ratio of advective transport to magnetic and viscous diffusion, respectively. The ohmic dissipation of the Karlsruhe dynamo experiment supports a simple dependence on the magnetic Reynolds number alone, indicating that flow turbulence in the experiment and in the Earth's core has little influence on its characteristic dissipation time. We use these results to predict moderate ohmic dissipation in the range of 0.2-0.5 TW, which removes the need for strong radioactive heating in the core and allows the age of the solid inner core to exceed 2.5 billion years.     

The DNA sequence and biology of human chromosome 19

Chromosome 19 has the highest gene density of all human chromosomes, more than double the genome-wide average. The large clustered gene families, corresponding high G + C content, CpG islands and density of repetitive DNA indicate a chromosome rich in biological and evolutionary significance. Here we describe 55.8 million base pairs of highly accurate finished sequence representing 99.9% of the euchromatin portion of the chromosome. Manual curation of gene loci reveals 1,461 protein-coding genes and 321 pseudogenes. Among these are genes directly implicated in mendelian disorders, including familial hypercholesterolaemia and insulin-resistant diabetes. Nearly one-quarter of these genes belong to tandemly arranged families, encompassing more than 25% of the chromosome. Comparative analyses show a fascinating picture of conservation and divergence, revealing large blocks of gene orthology with rodents, scattered regions with more recent gene family expansions and deletions, and segments of coding and non-coding conservation with the distant fish species Takifugu.