The avian nature of the brain and inner ear of Archaeopteryx

Archaeopteryx, the earliest known flying bird (avialan) from the Late Jurassic period, exhibits many shared primitive characters with more basal coelurosaurian dinosaurs (the clade including all theropods more bird-like than Allosaurus), such as teeth, a long bony tail and pinnate feathers. However, Archaeopteryx possessed asymmetrical flight feathers on its wings and tail, together with a wing feather arrangement shared with modern birds. This suggests some degree of powered flight capability but, until now, little was understood about the extent to which its brain and special senses were adapted for flight. We investigated this problem by computed tomography scanning and three-dimensional reconstruction of the braincase of the London specimen of Archaeopteryx. Here we show the reconstruction of the braincase from which we derived endocasts of the brain and inner ear. These suggest that Archaeopteryx closely resembled modern birds in the dominance of the sense of vision and in the possession of expanded auditory and spatial sensory perception in the ear. We conclude that Archaeopteryx had acquired the derived neurological and structural adaptations necessary for flight. An enlarged forebrain suggests that it had also developed enhanced somatosensory integration with these special senses demanded by a lifestyle involving flying ability.     

A soft solid surface on Titan as revealed by the Huygens Surface Science Package

The surface of Saturn's largest satellite--Titan--is largely obscured by an optically thick atmospheric haze, and so its nature has been the subject of considerable speculation and discussion. The Huygens probe entered Titan's atmosphere on 14 January 2005 and descended to the surface using a parachute system. Here we report measurements made just above and on the surface of Titan by the Huygens Surface Science Package. Acoustic sounding over the last 90 m above the surface reveals a relatively smooth, but not completely flat, surface surrounding the landing site. Penetrometry and accelerometry measurements during the probe impact event reveal that the surface was neither hard (like solid ice) nor very compressible (like a blanket of fluffy aerosol); rather, the Huygens probe landed on a relatively soft solid surface whose properties are analogous to wet clay, lightly packed snow and wet or dry sand. The probe settled gradually by a few millimetres after landing.     

New components of the spliced leader RNP required for nematode trans-splicing

Pre-messenger-RNA maturation in nematodes and in several other lower eukaryotic phyla involves spliced leader (SL) addition trans-splicing. In this unusual RNA processing reaction, a short common 5' exon, the SL, is affixed to the 5'-most exon of multiple pre-mRNAs. The nematode SL is derived from a trans-splicing-specific approximately 100-nucleotide RNA (SL RNA) that bears striking similarities to the cis-spliceosomal U small nuclear RNAs U1, U2, U4 and U5 (refs 3, 4); for example, the SL RNA functions only if it is assembled into an Sm small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP). Here we have purified and characterized the SL RNP and show that it contains two proteins (relative molecular masses 175,000 and 30,000 (M(r) 175K and 30K)) in addition to core Sm proteins. Immunodepletion and reconstitution with recombinant proteins demonstrates that both proteins are essential for SL trans-splicing; however, neither protein is required either for conventional cis-splicing or for bimolecular (trans-) splicing of fragmented cis constructs. The M(r) 175K and 30K SL RNP proteins are the first factors identified that are involved uniquely in SL trans-splicing. Several lines of evidence indicate that the SL RNP proteins function by participating in a trans-splicing specific network of protein protein interactions analogous to the U1 snRNP SF1/BBP U2AF complex that comprises the cross-intron bridge in cis-splicing.     

Vernier templating and synthesis of a 12-porphyrin nano-ring

Templates are widely used to arrange molecular components so they can be covalently linked into complex molecules that are not readily accessible by classical synthetic methods. Nature uses sophisticated templates such as the ribosome, whereas chemists use simple ions or small molecules. But as we tackle the synthesis of larger targets, we require larger templates-which themselves become synthetically challenging. Here we show that Vernier complexes can solve this problem: if the number of binding sites on the template, n(T), is not a multiple of the number of binding sites on the molecular building blocks, n(B), then small templates can direct the assembly of relatively large Vernier complexes where the number of binding sites in the product, n(P), is the lowest common multiple of n(B) and n(T) (refs 8, 9). We illustrate the value of this concept for the covalent synthesis of challenging targets by using a simple six-site template to direct the synthesis of a 12-porphyrin nano-ring with a diameter of 4.7?nm, thus establishing Vernier templating as a powerful new strategy for the synthesis of large monodisperse macromolecules.     

The Effects of Environmental Variables on Gas Exchange of Several Tree Species Under Boreal Field Conditions

１９９４年和１９９５年夏季在加拿大Ｓａｓｋａｔｃｈｅｗａｎ省ＰｒｉｎｃｅＡｌｂｅｒｔ市北部森林测定环境条件对欧洲杨（ＰｏｐｕｌｕｓｔｒｅｍｕｌｏｉｄｅｓＭｉｃｈｘ．）,胶杨（ＰｏｐｕｌｕｓｂａｌｓａｍｉｆｅｒａＬ．）,榛子（ＣｏｒｙｌｕｓｃｏｒｎｕｔａＭａｒｓｈ．）,短叶松（ＰｉｎｕｓｂａｎｋｓｉａｎａＬａｍｂ．）和黑云杉（Ｐｉｃｅａｍａｒｉａｎａ（Ｍｉｌ）ＢＳＰ）气体交换的影响。气体交换率的测定使用便携式气体交换系统（ＬＩ－６２００）。结果表明光合作用光流动量（ＰＰＦＤ）、气温（Ｔａ）、蒸气压差（ＶＰＤ）和体内二氧化碳浓度（Ｃｉ）均对气体交换有显著影响,但对不同树种影响程度不同。在大气二氧化碳浓度（Ｃａ）和相对稳定的气温和蒸气压差下,欧洲杨比短叶松和黑云杉有较高光饱和点、同化量子产量（Φ）、在饱和ＰＰＦＤ下最高同化率（Ｐｍ）和较低的光补偿点（ＬＣＰ）。对欧洲杨树,幼龄树比老龄树有较高光合能力,且生长季早期光合能力比后期高。欧洲杨和短叶松的气孔导度（ｇｓ）随ＰＰＦＤ增加而增加。但黑云杉ｇｓ不受ＰＰＦＤ影响。在高光强下（ＰＰＦＤ＞１０００μｍｏｌ·ｍ－２ｓ－１）,欧洲杨幼树被光叶片比曝光叶片表现较低的净二氧化     

Aerosols implicated as a prime driver of twentieth-century North Atlantic climate variability

Systematic climate shifts have been linked to multidecadal variability in observed sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean. These links are extensive, influencing a range of climate processes such as hurricane activity and African Sahel and Amazonian droughts. The variability is distinct from historical global-mean temperature changes and is commonly attributed to natural ocean oscillations. A number of studies have provided evidence that aerosols can influence long-term changes in sea surface temperatures, but climate models have so far failed to reproduce these interactions and the role of aerosols in decadal variability remains unclear. Here we use a state-of-the-art Earth system climate model to show that aerosol emissions and periods of volcanic activity explain 76 per cent of the simulated multidecadal variance in detrended 1860-2005 North Atlantic sea surface temperatures. After 1950, simulated variability is within observational estimates; our estimates for 1910-1940 capture twice the warming of previous generation models but do not explain the entire observed trend. Other processes, such as ocean circulation, may also have contributed to variability in the early twentieth century. Mechanistically, we find that inclusion of aerosol-cloud microphysical effects, which were included in few previous multimodel ensembles, dominates the magnitude (80 per cent) and the spatial pattern of the total surface aerosol forcing in the North Atlantic. Our findings suggest that anthropogenic aerosol emissions influenced a range of societally important historical climate events such as peaks in hurricane activity and Sahel drought. Decadal-scale model predictions of regional Atlantic climate will probably be improved by incorporating aerosol-cloud microphysical interactions and estimates of future concentrations of aerosols, emissions of which are directly addressable by policy actions.