Prenatal diagnosis of Huntington's disease (HD): Experiences with six cases and PCR

In the course of a 2-year predictive testing programme for Huntington's disease (HD), six couples from a total of 52 applicants requested prenatal testing. In each case, the pregnancy was in the first or second trimester when the couples were referred for DNA diagnosis. In five cases, exclusion testing was offered; in one case, a person at risk with an increased risk of being a gene carrier requested prenatal diagnosis. In all cases, informative markers for prenatal testing could be determined. Whenever possible, the newer technique of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for D4S125 was applied to perform rapid prenatal diagnosis. Two couples withdrew before chorionic villus sampling was undertaken; prenatal diagnosis was completed in the remaining four cases. After exclusion testing, two pregnancies were determined to have an increased risk and two fetuses to have a low risk of being HD gene carriers.     

Metallophyte status of violets of the section Melanium

Violets from metal-enriched soils have controversially been described as both heavy-metal accumulators and excluders in the literature. The present study solves the issue for violets of the section Melanium (zinc violets, Viola lutea ssp. calaminaria and V. lutea ssp. westfalica; hartsease or wild pansy, Viola tricolor; and mountain pansy, V. lutea). The aims were to determine the concentrations of heavy metals in the soil and in the roots and shoots of field-collected plants, to evaluate the potential impact of colonisation by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on heavy-metal concentrations in the plant tissues, and to quantitatively define the localisation of the elements in root cross-sections. When these violets grow in low-metal soils, higher concentrations of the heavy metals were found in the roots and shoots than in the soil, whereas the opposite was seen in samples from high-metal soils. Under all field conditions examined, the roots of all of these species were colonised by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. However, V. tricolor was marginally colonised when the concentrations of Zn and P were higher in the soil. Determination of the spatial distribution of the elements in root cross-sections of these violets indicates tissue-specific deposition of elements within the vascular tissue, the cortex, and the rhizodermis. These data indicate that violets of the section Melanium are heavy-metal excluders.     

模拟废水高温厌氧消化出水中SMP的特性研究

为考察废水高温厌氧消化出水中溶解性微生物产物(SMP)的特性,采用高温厌氧序批式反应器处理葡萄糖模拟废水,运用尺寸排除色谱(SEC)分离厌氧消化出水溶解性有机物(DOM),结合溶解性有机碳(DOC)、UV254吸光度和三维荧光光谱分析方法,对不同分离组分进行了定性和定量研究.结果表明,SMP在出水DOM(356mg/L,以DOC计)中占90.8%,其在高分子量(MW)(10k~100kDa)、中等MW(1k~10kDa)和低MW(<1kDa)内的含量分别为46.8%、45.4%和7.8%.高MW内的SMP比中等、低MW内的SMP有更高的芳香度.废水高温厌氧消化出水中SMP的荧光物质以高的酪氨酸类物质含量,低的富里酸和腐殖酸类物质含量为主要特征.低MW区域的SMP主要包括酪氨酸类物质,而富里酸和腐殖酸类物质主要集中于中等MW区域,色氨酸类和微生物副产物类物质在各MW区域内均有分布.高、中等MW区域(不含630Da相似文献   

Rapid assessment of insect pollination services to inform decision-making

Pollinator declines have prompted efforts to assess how land-use change affects insect pollinators and pollination services in agricultural landscapes. Yet many tools to measure insect pollination services require substantial landscape-scale data and technical expertise. In expert workshops, 3 straightforward methods (desk-based method, field survey, and empirical manipulation with exclusion experiments) for rapid insect pollination assessment at site scale were developed to provide an adaptable framework that is accessible to nonspecialist with limited resources. These methods were designed for TESSA (Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-Based Assessment) and allow comparative assessment of pollination services at a site of conservation interest and in its most plausible alternative state (e.g., converted to agricultural land). We applied the methods at a nature reserve in the United Kingdom to estimate the value of insect pollination services provided by the reserve. The economic value of pollination services provided by the reserve ranged from US$6163 to US$11,546/year. The conversion of the reserve to arable land would provide no insect pollination services and a net annual benefit from insect-pollinated crop production of approximately $1542/year (US$24∙ha^–1∙year^–1). The methods had wide applicability and were readily adapted to different insect-pollinated crops: rape (Brassica napus) and beans (Vicia faba) crops. All methods were rapidly employed under a low budget. The relatively less robust methods that required fewer resources yielded higher estimates of annual insect pollination benefit.