Distribution of actinomycetes in oil contaminated ultisols of the Niger Delta (Nigeria)

The distribution of actinomycetes in oil contaminated sandy loam ultisols of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria was studied to aid in understanding the effect of hydrocarbons on indigenous microbial population in tropical soils. The average total counts of actinomycetes in all the oil samples analysed was 103 cfu/g. Higher counts of actinomycetes were observed during the dry season than during the wet season. The counts of hydrocarbonoclastic actinomycetes correlated positively with the total count of actinomycetes.The actinomycetes were generally restricted to the top soil(0-10 cm soil depth) although a seemingly deeper(down to 40 cm soil depth) distribution was noticed in the dry season. The isolates included oil degrading species of Actinoplanes, Norcadia,Streptomyces and Streptosporangium. Their high oil utilization ability indicates their positive potential and role in the bioremediation of oil-spilled soils.     

A biological paleoindicator for early lake acidification: Mallomonadacean (Chrysophyceae) scale abundance in sediments

The Science of Nature -     

Biologie und Biochemie des Elements Selen

The importance of selenium as an essential trace element has progressively emerged during the last years due to the analysis of selenium deficiency diseases and to the identification and characterization of a number of selenoenzymes. Selenium is incorporated in the catalytic site of the enzymes as an integral selenocysteine residue. The pathway of selenocysteine biosynthesis and incorporation has been elucidated recently for Escherichia coli. This article presents an overview on these subjects and describes the mechanisms which confer selenocysteine specificity in the framework of protein biosynthesis. In addition, some considerations concerning the phylogeny of selenocysteine incorporation are presented and a model for the evolution of the selenocysteine pathway is proposed.     

A polyiodide with regular I 4 2− chains: Tl6PbI10

The Science of Nature -     

The influence of the physical environment on the self-organised foraging patterns of ants

Among social insects such as ants, scouts that modulate their recruiting behaviour, following simple rules based on local information, generate collective patterns of foraging. Here we demonstrate that features of the abiotic environment, specifically the foraging substrate, may also be influential in the emergence of group-level decisions such as the choice of one foraging path. Experimental data and theoretical analyses show that the collective patterns can arise independently of behavioural changes of individual scouts and can result, through self-organising processes, from the physico-chemical properties of the environment that alter the dynamics of information transfer by chemical trails.