Unique method of tooth replacement in durophagous placodont marine reptiles,with new data on the dentition of Chinese taxa

The placodonts of the Triassic period (~252–201 mya) represent one of the earliest and most extreme specialisations to a durophagous diet of any known reptile group. Exceptionally enlarged crushing tooth plates on the maxilla, dentary and palatine cooperated to form functional crushing areas in the buccal cavity. However, the extreme size of these teeth, combined with the unusual way they occluded, constrained how replacement occurred. Using an extensive micro‐computed tomographic dataset of 11 specimens that span all geographic regions and placodont morphotypes, tooth replacement patterns were investigated. In addition, the previously undescribed dental morphologies and formulae of Chinese taxa are described for the first time and incorporated into the analysis. Placodonts have a unique tooth replacement pattern and results follow a phylogenetic trend. The plesiomorphic Placodus species show many replacement teeth at various stages of growth, with little or no discernible pattern. On the other hand, the more derived cyamodontoids tend to have fewer replacement teeth growing at any one time, replacing teeth unilaterally and/or in functional units, thus maintaining at least one functional crushing area at all times. The highly derived placochelyids have fewer teeth and, as a result, only have one or two replacement teeth in the upper jaw. This supports previous suggestions that these taxa had an alternative diet to other placodonts. Importantly, all specimens show at least one replacement tooth growing at the most posterior palatine tooth plates, indicating increased wear at this point and thus the most efficient functional crushing area.     

From the Cover: Accumulation and enhanced cycling of polyphosphate by Sargasso Sea plankton in response to low phosphorus

Phytoplankton alter their biochemical composition according to nutrient availability, such that their bulk elemental composition varies across oceanic provinces. However, the links between plankton biochemical composition and variation in biogeochemical cycling of nutrients remain largely unknown. In a survey of phytoplankton phosphorus stress in the western North Atlantic, we found that phytoplankton in the phosphorus-depleted subtropical Sargasso Sea were enriched in the biochemical polyphosphate (polyP) compared with nutrient-rich temperate waters, contradicting the canonical oceanographic view of polyP as a luxury phosphorus storage molecule. The enrichment in polyP coincided with enhanced alkaline phosphatase activity and substitution of sulfolipids for phospholipids, which are both indicators of phosphorus stress. Further, polyP appeared to be liberated preferentially over bulk phosphorus from sinking particles in the Sargasso Sea, thereby retaining phosphorus in shallow waters. Thus, polyP cycling may form a feedback loop that attenuates the export of phosphorus when it becomes scarce, contributes bioavailable P for primary production, and supports the export of carbon and nitrogen via sinking particles.Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for all living organisms. However, P can be extremely scarce in open-ocean surface waters such as in the subtropical western North Atlantic (the Sargasso Sea), where soluble reactive P (SRP) concentrations are routinely <10 nmol⋅L⁻¹ and turnover rates are on the order of hours (1). Despite this scarcity, primary production by phytoplankton in the Sargasso Sea does not appear to be limited primarily by P (2, 3), reflecting the intensity of P recycling by the microbial community (4, 5) and the exquisite adaptations of marine phytoplankton to low P conditions, which remain to be fully characterized.Phytoplankton respond to low P by producing enzymes such as alkaline phosphatase to hydrolyze extracellular dissolved organic P molecules (4, 6, 7), increasing the affinity and rate of P uptake (8, 9) and reducing their inventory of P-containing biochemicals (1, 10). In contrast, when P is abundant, phytoplankton take up excess P and store it as a luxury reserve that is generally thought to be composed of polyphosphate (polyP) (10–12). This modulation of P-containing biochemicals results in basin-scale relationships between P availability and biomass carbon-to-phosphorus (C:P) ratios (13). Presently, the only class of molecules known to consistently contribute to these gradients in cellular P are lipids because P stress in phytoplankton triggers substitution of non–P-membrane lipids for phospholipids, such as the sulfolipid sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol (SQDG) for the phospholipid phosphatidylglycerol (PG) (1, 14). However, lipid substitution alone probably cannot account for the full range of C:P observed in the ocean, and yet an understanding of other biochemical drivers of the C:P gradient remains elusive. Further, it is unknown how changes in plankton biochemical composition influence the recycling of nutrients.Polyphosphate (polyP), a ubiquitous inorganic P polymer of three to hundreds of residues, has diverse physiological roles and complex dynamics in microbes. It is critical for surviving nutritional stress and stationary phase (15–17) but is also important for P homeostasis: microbes produce polyP when P is more abundant than required for growth, so-called luxury uptake, and break down this polyP store upon P stress (18). Moreover, if P-stressed cells experience a spike in P availability, they overproduce polyP in excess of luxury uptake levels, the so-called “overplus” response (19). Given these complex dynamics, it has been hypothesized that polyP might be either virtually absent, or particularly abundant, in oligotrophic marine systems (20).     

Climate change and the selective signature of the Late Ordovician mass extinction

Selectivity patterns provide insights into the causes of ancient extinction events. The Late Ordovician mass extinction was related to Gondwanan glaciation; however, it is still unclear whether elevated extinction rates were attributable to record failure, habitat loss, or climatic cooling. We examined Middle Ordovician-Early Silurian North American fossil occurrences within a spatiotemporally explicit stratigraphic framework that allowed us to quantify rock record effects on a per-taxon basis and assay the interplay of macrostratigraphic and macroecological variables in determining extinction risk. Genera that had large proportions of their observed geographic ranges affected by stratigraphic truncation or environmental shifts at the end of the Katian stage were particularly hard hit. The duration of the subsequent sampling gaps had little effect on extinction risk, suggesting that this extinction pulse cannot be entirely attributed to rock record failure; rather, it was caused, in part, by habitat loss. Extinction risk at this time was also strongly influenced by the maximum paleolatitude at which a genus had previously been sampled, a macroecological trait linked to thermal tolerance. A model trained on the relationship between 16 explanatory variables and extinction patterns during the early Katian interval substantially underestimates the extinction of exclusively tropical taxa during the late Katian interval. These results indicate that glacioeustatic sea-level fall and tropical ocean cooling played important roles in the first pulse of the Late Ordovician mass extinction in Laurentia.     

Cultural adaptation, compounding vulnerabilities and conjunctures in Norse Greenland

Norse Greenland has been seen as a classic case of maladaptation by an inflexible temperate zone society extending into the arctic and collapse driven by climate change. This paper, however, recognizes the successful arctic adaptation achieved in Norse Greenland and argues that, although climate change had impacts, the end of Norse settlement can only be truly understood as a complex socioenvironmental system that includes local and interregional interactions operating at different geographic and temporal scales and recognizes the cultural limits to adaptation of traditional ecological knowledge. This paper is not focused on a single discovery and its implications, an approach that can encourage monocausal and environmentally deterministic emphasis to explanation, but it is the product of sustained international interdisciplinary investigations in Greenland and the rest of the North Atlantic. It is based on data acquisitions, reinterpretation of established knowledge, and a somewhat different philosophical approach to the question of collapse. We argue that the Norse Greenlanders created a flexible and successful subsistence system that responded effectively to major environmental challenges but probably fell victim to a combination of conjunctures of large-scale historic processes and vulnerabilities created by their successful prior response to climate change. Their failure was an inability to anticipate an unknowable future, an inability to broaden their traditional ecological knowledge base, and a case of being too specialized, too small, and too isolated to be able to capitalize on and compete in the new protoworld system extending into the North Atlantic in the early 15th century.     

五种药用石斛内生真菌抑制HIV-1整合酶活性研究

目的 评价5种药用石斛内生真菌发酵产物抑制HIV-1整合酶的活性.方法 将分离自石斛的202株内生真菌提取物共404个采用高通量ELISA法评价其抑制HIV-l整合酶活性;对抑制活性大于100％的样品进行量效关系考察并进行体外抑制肿瘤细胞活性筛选.结果 筛选得到19个对HIV-l整合酶抑制活性大于80％的样品,其中样品5119F、5297F、5097F、5140J和5211F的抑制率分别达到117.96％、113.53％、108.62％、103.74％和109.02％,其对应的IC50值分别为0.02024、0.003125、0.00862、0.01007 和 0.01192 mg/ml.结论石斛属药用植物内生真菌是一个潜在的、丰富的用于筛选HIV-1整合酶抑制剂的资源库,值得进一步研究和开发.     

苦参素治疗低病毒载量慢性乙型肝炎患者的疗效观察

目的 观察序贯应用苦参素胶囊和苦参素注射液治疗低病毒载量慢性乙型肝炎的疗效.方法 选择60例低病毒载量慢性乙型肝炎患者,随机分为对照组和治疗组各30例,对照组给予常规保肝治疗,治疗组同时序贯应用苦参素胶囊和苦参素注射液治疗,总疗程24周,观察两组治疗4、12、24周时的ALT、HBV DNA转阴率及HBeAg/抗-HBe血清转换率.结果 治疗组在改善肝功能、HBV DNA转阴率及HBeAg/抗-HBe血清转换率方面优于对照组.结论 序贯应用苦参素胶囊和苦参素注射液治疗低病毒载量慢性乙型肝炎患者可以获得较高的应答率.     

不同产地滇黄精丛枝菌根真菌、深色有隔内生真菌定殖调查及与主要功效成分含量相关性分析

目的调查不同产地滇黄精根系中丛枝菌根真菌(AMF)和深色有隔内生真菌(DSE)定殖情况,并探讨其与主要功效成分之间的相关性。方法以产自于云南省5个样地的滇黄精为研究对象,采用碱解离-酸性品红染色法,调查AMF和DSE在滇黄精须根部位的定殖情况,并对典型形态结构进行拍照分析;采用硫酸苯酚法、香草醛-冰醋酸-高氯酸比色法、分光光度法和醇溶热浸法测定滇黄精根状茎中多糖、薯蓣皂苷元、总黄酮和浸出物含量,并通过皮尔森相关系数法分析AMF及其典型结构定殖率、DSE及其典型结构定殖率与4种功效成分含量之间的相关性。结果在5个样地中,AMF和DSE在滇黄精须根中的平均定殖率范围分别为26.25%～57.54%、31.67%～45.19%,其中样地红河州蒙自县(HHMZ)AMF和DSE定殖率均高于其他样地。4种功效成分与AMF、DSE定殖率及典型结构定殖率之间均呈正相关,其中多糖、薯蓣皂苷元和总黄酮含量与AMF、DSE定殖率相关性相对较高,AMF/DSE相关系数分别为0.838/0.887、0.819/0.703、0.785/0.855,且多糖含量与AMF菌丝定殖率、DSE定殖率呈显著相关。此外,AMF及典型结构定殖率与DSE及典型结构定殖率之间、4种功效成分含量两两之间均存有较高的相关性。结论 AMF和DSE在滇黄精须根中有着较高的定殖率,且与主要功效成分含量之间呈正相关。本研究为实施滇黄精生态种植、采用生物手段增产增收提供了数据支持和实验依据。     

接种时期对丛枝菌根真菌侵染的滇重楼幼苗生长发育及甾体皂苷含量的影响

目的研究不同接种时期对丛枝菌根(AM)真菌侵染的滇重楼幼苗生长发育及重楼皂苷含量的影响,为栽培驯化出高品质的滇重楼奠定基础。方法采用HPLC测定不同接种时期滇重楼中重楼皂苷I、II、VI、VII的含量;采用曲利苯蓝染色法、紫外分光光度法等方法对不同接种时期及不同AM真菌组合的滇重楼的侵染率、生理指标、根茎生物量等进行分析。结果不同接种时期的AM真菌侵染率较强,保护酶活性、光合色素和可溶性糖含量提高,可溶性蛋白无明显变化,丙二醛含量降低,滇重楼幼苗的抗逆性提高,生长发育良好;栽培种源1年实生苗(2015年8月采收,T7时期)的品质相对较低,栽培种源1年实生苗(2015年6月、7月采收,T5、T6时期)的与栽培种源2年实生苗(2015年8月采收,T8时期)的品质最佳;不同的AM真菌混合组中,S2、S3和S6处理组的效果更佳。结论接种时期对AMF侵染的滇重楼幼苗生长发育及重楼皂苷含量存在一定的影响。